FBI: Former SIU Student Threatened to Blow Up Dorms, Kill Students
A Chicago man sent a series of letters claiming he was going to bomb buildings at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, threatening to shoot staff and rape, kill and decapitate students if he didn’t receive $50 million, according to federal court documents.
Derrick Dawon Burns, 21, a former student at SIUC, has been charged with making bomb threats and mailing threatening communications in the letters, which were dated between September 2012 and October 2013. Burns, who is alleged to have written letters including one claiming to be a “Terrorist for alqaeda,” is being held pending a detention hearing Wednesday in Chicago, according to court documents and a release from the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Illinois.
Burns was caught after he made anonymous calls to the FBI and SIU police this summer claiming he had spoken to someone named “Big Russ” in a Carbondale bar who said he had raped and killed people, according to an affidavit from an FBI agent filed with the charges. The phone number used to make the calls was listed in SIU records as a number for Burns, according to the affidavit.
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