Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

A 36-year-old man faces a felony charge for allegedly making a bomb threat that caused part of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus to be evacuated this week. 

Ahmed Umar of Minneapolis is charged with one count of threats of violence in connection with the Wednesday incident.

According to the criminal complaint, police were called to Coffman Memorial Union on the U of M campus just before 5 p.m. Wednesday about a man who “was filming students, repeatedly attempting to enter a room, and refusing to leave.”

Officers located the man — later identified as Umar — who allegedly had been filming people, and brought him to a bench outside the building. They learned Umar was the subject of an active warrant from Dakota County, and told him he was under arrest.

“When an officer asked (Umar) if he had any weapons, (he) replied, ‘I have a bomb,’ and indicated the bomb was in his backpack, which was sitting on the ground nearby,” the complaint states.

That prompted an evacuation of the surrounding area. The Minneapolis bomb squad responded but did not find any kind of explosive device.

Court records show Umar has been convicted on trespassing charges several times in Minnesota in the past few years, along with theft and giving false information to police.

He was being held in the Hennepin County Jail as of Friday morning.

Crime, Law and Justice

NewsPartners

MPR News Staff

Author

A 36-year-old man faces a felony charge for allegedly making a bomb threat that caused part of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus to be evacuated.

Man charged in bomb threat that prompted evacuation at U of M

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox