Explosion Reported at Yale Law School

By Diane Scarponi
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, May 21, 2003; 8:01 PM

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A bomb exploded in an empty classroom at the Yale University law school Wednesday, sending debris flying and students scrambling for safety. No injuries were reported and the damage was minor.

“We understand there was a device and it went off,” Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart said.

The law school also houses a day care and some residences, but it was not clear whether any children or residents were inside at time. The law school is holding final exams through Friday, and officials said tests were given in the building earlier Wednesday.

There were no initial indications that an international terrorist organization set off the bomb, according to two U.S. officials who are familiar with intelligence information. They spoke on the condition of anonymity.

FBI spokesman Ed Cogswell also said that there was no initial communication from any person or group about the explosion. He said FBI agents were at the scene but it was too early to draw conclusions about the blast or those behind it.

Acting Police Chief Francisco Ortiz said the explosion was being treated as a criminal matter, but no possibility had been ruled out. He said damage was limited to the ceiling and a partition in the classroom.

The explosion happened about 5 p.m., sending smoke rising above downtown New Haven.

“I saw a huge fireball come out to the middle of the hallway,” said law student Bob Hoo, who was on the ground floor of the law school. “It was there and then it was gone.”

The incident came one day after the government raised the alert level for possible terrorist attacks and several hours after President Bush spoke at the Coast Guard Academy graduation ceremony in New London, 50 miles away east of New Haven.

Yale is Bush’s alma mater and one of his daughters, Barbara, is finishing her junior year at the university. Secret Service spokesman John Gill said the younger Bush “was not in danger at any time, and she was not in the vicinity” of the blast.

In 1993, a bomb exploded in the Yale office of professor David Gelernter, seriously injuring him. Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski was later sentenced to prison for that attack and others that killed three people and injured more than 20 from 1978 to 1995.

Associated Press Writer John J. Lumpkin in Washington contributed to this report.