Suspicious device found at ASU was not a bomb

A “suspicious device” discovered in an Appalachian State University campus building Monday was not a bomb, say campus and town police officials.

ASU police, Boone police and the Boone Fire Department, as well as the Hazardous Devices Unit from neighboring Wilkes County, were dispatched to the site.

The team from Wilkes County destroyed the device after students and employees within a 500-foot radius of the building were evacuated from Dale Street at around 2 p.m. Access was reinstated at 6:02 p.m. after officials disposed of the device.

An employee of the campus’ Physical Plant Department discovered the device while retrieving university property from another employee’s locker.

The device had been there for a long period of time, said ASU Police Chief Gunther Doerr.

“It just didn’t look right,” he said. “We felt very comfortable with our protocol. It went as we trained.”

ASU junior Ann Tate was on campus at the time. She said the incident didn’t disrupt classes or main campus and was handled promptly by university police.

Updates were posted on ASU’s website as more information became available.

“I don’t feel like students were freaking out,” Tate said. “They kept us as much in the know as possible.”

Doerr said Boone police are still investigating the incident, which is the first of its kind to happen on campus. More information about the found device will be released in the near future.

“We’re going to be presenting a total report to our university attorney and district attorney’s office to see the action that needs to be taken afterwards,” he said.

Randy Young, spokesman for UNC-CH’s Department of Public Safety, said the University uses a similar procedure to address bomb-related incidents. Campus police have utilized NIMS, the National Incident Management System, as a standardized method of response to threats since 9/11.

Before confirming the device’s threat, DPS officials would have placed Alert Carolina at tier level 2 and sent out text messages and emails.

“If we could ascertain the validity of it, we would definitely set off the sirens if we thought there was imminent danger to the greater campus community,” Young said.

Other preventative measures include the bomb-sniffing dog Buddy, who can detect nearly 30 incendiary materials.

But campus police do not release their exact procedures in the event of a bomb threat.

“We don’t discuss operations because we don’t want to enable anyone who would perpetrate a bombing,” Young said.

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