3 students arrested for making bomb threat at ASU Tempe campus
Sep 15, 2022, 1:15 PM
From left: Trevor Benoit, Lukas Patton, Peter Fraenkel (Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Photos)
(Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Photos)
PHOENIX – Three Arizona State University students were accused of making a bomb threat that cleared part of the Tempe campus early this week.
Trevor Benoit, Peter Fraenkel and Lukas Patton were booked Tuesday into Maricopa County Jail on a felony charge of interference/ disruption of an education institution and misdemeanor offenses including false reporting and disorderly conduct in the Monday night disturbance.
Memorial Union and Hassayampa Residential Village were evacuated around 9:30 p.m. as the ASU Police Department searched the grounds and buildings for explosive devices.
Police said that Benoit, 21, and Patton, 18, posted on social media that they’d put a bomb in the student union, while Fraenkel allegedly said he’d put a bomb in the dorms.
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The probable cause statement on Benoit said he told them he had been drinking and posted the threat to get noticed.
Fraenkel allegedly told police the threat was “a bad joke” and that he didn’t know what he was thinking when he posted “I feel bad if you live in Hassy (Hassayampa), I just placed a bomb in there.”
Police said Patton wrote, “It’s OK guys we all put the bomb in the MU,” responding to Benoit and Fraenkel.
The university safety app began alerting students and police began to receive reports of the threat.
About 400 students were evacuated and directed to the campus fitness center to wait out the search.
After finding nothing dangerous, police allowed students to return around 1 a.m.
The three suspects were tracked down through the social media platform they used and taken into custody, police said.
