http://www.themaneater.com/story.cgi?id=18921
Kappa Alpha’s cannon explodes near campus
Web-posted April 30, 2004
Derek Kravitz
Crime Editor
It appears that members of the Kappa Alpha Order tried to restart the Civil War on Thursday night.
Fraternity members packed a Civil-War-era cannon with gunpowder in front of their house at 1301 University Ave. and fired it Thursday night. The cannon blew up, sending fragments of iron through the roof of an apartment building across the street.
Columbia and MU police responded at about 8 p.m. after residents reported the sound of an explosion and an object penetrating the roof of the University Place Apartments, 1205 University Ave.
CPD Sgt. Lloyd Simons said no one was injured in the explosion.
According to a news release, Columbia police arrested two Kappa Alpha members in connection with the explosion. Nicholas Adkins and Seth Fagan, both 21, were arrested on suspicion of unlawful use of a weapon, first-degree property damage, third-degree assault and reckless exploding. Simons said the investigation into the explosion is ongoing and that police are looking for a third suspect.
Christopher Holshouser said he heard the explosion from his room inside the Community of Christ Liahona House, across the street from the Kappa Alpha house, and went to his window to see what had happened. He said he saw about 20 people huddled around the remains of the cannon.
“They were all crowded around it laughing,” Holshouser said.
When the cannon blew up, Vamsi Nukala and his roommate were sitting in their living room on the fifth floor of University Place Apartments.
“We heard a big, loud boom, and we thought it was a bomb,” Nukala said.
Nukala said he and his roommate, John Dickerson, rushed into the floor’s recreation room to find a hole through two floors of the apartment building and debris spread across parts of the room’s ping-pong table. Nukala said four people had been playing table tennis when a piece of the cannon fell through the roof and onto the table.
Police at the scene reported the damage of the cannon incident to be at least two sizable holes in the apartment building’s roof and a number of broken windows.
Mark Lucas, Department of Student Life interim director, said when his office receives the police report on the incident it will take action. Because he did not know if the entire fraternity or a small number of members were responsible for the explosion, he said he could not speculate on MU’s possible actions.
Representatives of Kappa Alpha declined to comment on the incident.
OK seriously I am getting really embarassed to be greek at this school lately.
Kappa Alpha at Mizzou...
Threaded Mode