OU BOMBER WAS INVESTIGATED BY POLICE; DID TRY TO BUY AMMONIUM NITRATE

Two bits about Joel Hinrichs III confirmed:

Norman police confirmed Thursday that they ran a routine investigation of a 21-year-old University of Oklahoma student who blew himself up on campus Saturday night.

At a 2 p.m. news conference, Norman Police Department spokesman J.D. Younger said an off-duty, plainclothes officer overheard a conversation Joel Henry Hinrichs III had with the proprietor of a Norman feed store last Thursday at 4 p.m. The conversation centered on a purchase of ammonium nitrate fertilizer.

"I think it's important to note that it's not a criminal activity to purchase ammonium nitrate fertilizer," Younger said.

It's also important to note that the 21-year-old student wasn't a farmer and had no obvious innocent reason to buy fertilizer. And it's important to note that ammonium nitrate can pack a helluva punch.

However, he noted that the context of Hinrichs' conversation with a manager of Ellison Feed & Seed was suspicious. Younger indicated that the off-duty officer reported that Hinrichs asked about different types of fertilizer and the concentration of ammonium nitrate in each.

Ammonium nitrate was the primary ingredient in the bomb that killed 168 people in the explosion that brought down the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.

The officer, according to Younger, took a mental note of the conversation and its context, and then followed Hinrichs outside. The officer took down the student's license tag number, contacted Norman's police department dispatch operation, had Hinrichs checked for outstanding warrants -- but, alas, found nothing.

The officer continued his investigation Thursday night, but could only conclude that Hinrichs was an OU student and lived in university-subsidized housing. The officer did contact a Norman bomb squad technician; however, the plan at that time was for the off-duty officer to complete a written report for submission the following Monday.

Hinrichs died when a bomb he allegedly created exploded as he sat on a bench next to the George Lynn Cross Hall, about 100 yards from Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, where about 84,000 people were watching the Sooners play Kansas State in a college football game.

So Hinrichs was still technically under investigation when he blew himself up? We should commend the officer for being on his toes. But this begs the question of others involved. Hinrichs was inquiring about ammonium nitrate on Thursday afternoon. He toted a bomb to the stadium and blew himself up on Saturday night. That really only leaves a couple of days to make the bomb, if the one he made and killed himself with was a Plan B (since he doesn't seem to have built that bomb from ammonium nitrate). ANFO bombs tend to be large and somewhat complex as terrorist weapons go. You're not going to put an ANFO bomb in a backpack, typically, and you're not going to assemble all the necessary chemicals and parts in two days.

(via Michelle Malkin)