A Liberty University student was arrested after telling a family member he had made bombs and planned to attend the funeral of the Reverend Jerry Falwell, authorities said.
Mark David Uhl, 19, was arrested on Monday night on charges of manufacturing an explosive device, Major Steve Hutcherson said. A family member notified authorities.
Officials were still trying to figure out why Uhl made the bombs and what he intended to do with them.
"I do not believe it was their intent to disrupt the funeral service," Campbell County Sheriff Terry Gaddy said. "We do not believe the Falwells were ever in any danger."
The funeral proceeded on Tuesday at Thomas Road Baptist Church without incident. The church on the campus of the university, which Falwell founded.
Gaddy described the five bombs as "sort of like napalm" and about the size of soda cans.
Investigators determined that Uhl had problems with a group that protested at the funeral, Gaddy said. The group, the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church, sent about a dozen members who claimed Falwell was a friend of gays to protest across the street. The group has also picketed soldiers' burials, claiming the deaths are God's punishment for a nation that harbors gays.
Falwell frequently spoke against homosexuality, and gay rights advocates have consistently opposed him. A group of Liberty University students staged a counterprotest; it was not clear whether Uhl was involved.
Jesse Benson, 19, of Zanesville, Ohio, said that he roomed with Uhl this year and that both shared the view that the Westboro group is a "sorry, disgraceful bunch of people," but that he was certain Uhl would never have done anything to harm them.
"He had a very, very deep respect for Jerry Falwell, as do I," Benson said in a telephone interview. "Jerry Falwell would not have approved him harming anybody for any reason. Out of respect for Jerry Falwell, he never would have done anything."
It wasn't known whether Uhl knew the group planned to go to the campus, but it had listed the funeral as an upcoming event published on its Web site.
Benson said Uhl was in Liberty's Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program and was studying to become an Army chaplain. Gaddy investigators in Fauquier County were interviewing several people who had been in an ROTC program with Uhl, of Amissville, in high school and may have been involved in making the bombs. One is now in the Army, he said.
Gaddy said Campbell County authorities informed the Falwell family and Liberty security personnel of the arrest on Monday night, and gave security personnel photos of other possible suspects in case any of them showed up at the funeral.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS