Haha... Crazy stuff...
Heres more coverage....
Scholars get bang from visit
Exploding cannon launches projectiles.
By JOHN SULLIVAN of the Tribune’s staff
Published Friday, April 30, 2004
Members of Kappa Alpha fraternity, 1301 University Ave., stand on the front porch last night as Columbia and University of Missouri police officers comb the front lawn after a cannon, foreground, exploded.
A group of Chinese visiting scholars unexpectedly received a piece of American history yesterday when an 8-inch portion of a cannon that legend dates to the Civil War crashed through the roof of their apartment and landed on a pingpong table in the middle of a game.
Nobody was hurt in the incident, which police say occurred after members of the Kappa Alpha fraternity blew up an antique cannon they had tried to load with fireworks on the front lawn of their house on the northeast corner of College and University avenues. The explosion blew out a second floor apartment window at University Place apartments, 1205 University Ave., and sent projectiles flying into the brick wall and through the roof of an east wing of the apartment complex.
Police said the cannon was destroyed.
Building maintenance workers found pieces of fireworks, that apparently came from the fraternity, on the roof of the apartment this morning. A piece of black metal about three inches long and a half-inch thick could also be seen stuck in the outer brick wall of the apartment’s east wing.
Police arrested 21-year-old Kappa Alpha members Nicholas A. Adkins and Seth R. Fagan for unlawful use of a weapon, reckless exploding, first-degree property damage and third-degree assault. Bond for each suspect was set at $11,000. Fagan posted bond this morning, but Adkins remained in Boone County Jail.
If convicted, the suspects could face anywhere from one to 10 years in jail and/or a fine, said Steven Berry with the Boone County Prosecutor’s Office.
Columbia Police Capt. Zim Schwartze said police are investigating a third suspect for possible involvement in the crime.
Elaine Pohl, an English teacher with the Asian Affairs Department at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said she and one of 14 visiting scholars from China had been playing a game of pingpong about 8 p.m. in a fourth floor lounge of University Place when they heard two loud explosions. Looking out the window to investigate the cause, she turned and noticed a 12-inch hole in the ceiling of the lounge.
Then she noticed an 8-inch piece of metal about 2 inches thick on the pingpong table. "It came down into the net like it would’ve sliced the table in two, though it didn’t break the table," she said.
The piece of metal had apparently gone through the roof and the top, fifth floor of the building before landing in the fourth-floor lounge, where the Chinese scholars were relaxing after dinner, Pohl said. About a dozen people were in the room at the time, she said.
"I immediately thought of the World Trade Center and got out of the building," she said.
The Chinese visitors, however, appeared unfazed, she said.
The occupants of the second floor apartment with the shattered window were not home this morning. Neighbors of the tenants said they came from India and that no one was injured.
The Office of Greek Life is investigating whether individuals acted alone or with the sanction of the fraternity.
Sang Kim, interim director of the Asian Affairs Center, said the visiting scholars are members of the All Youth Federation, an association of young state-run business officials with the Communist Party. The group is here to examine the workings of local community systems, such as local governments and schools, he said. "These are up-and-coming future leaders of their provinces and regions," he said. "One of" them "almost got killed."
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I see it also made st louis and kansas city news..
great.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/new...nto+apartments
-Matt
Kappa Alpha at Mizzou...
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