A planned massacre was thwarted at the University of Central Florida when a student who had assembled an arsenal, including a high capacity drum magazine and home made bombs, killed himself as policemen closed in on him.
James Oliver Seevakumaran, who was in the process of being kicked out of his dorm on the UCF campus, had written out a timeline and elaborate plan on how to harm maximum people during the planned attack, university police chief Richard Beary said.
According to ABC News, the suspect accumulated multiple weapons, including American Tactical .22 caliber assault rifle and a High Point .45 caliber handgun, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and high capacity magazines, including a drum magazine similar to the type used in the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado.
Seevakumaran, 30, had also assembled four homemade improvised explosive devices, which officials described as Molotov cocktail-type incendiaries, believed to be lined with shrapnel.
Police said that he planned to use all of the weapons after pulling a fire alarm, to draw students out of their rooms early in the morning, the report said.
Shortly after midnight, he activated a fire alarm in the building to enact his plan and then returned to his apartment to retrieve his weapons.
Campus police were responding to the fire alarm call at the dorm when Seevakumaran’s roommate called 911 and said he had pointed a gun at him, causing the roommate to flee to the bathroom and lock himself inside.
Police believe that Seevakumaran planned to go out into the hallway as students evacuated. He planned to fire the weapons and detonate the bombs, they believe.
According to the report, policemen arrived at the suspect’s apartment with the knowledge that there was a report of a man with a gun.
They freed the roommate from the bathroom and found Seevakumaran dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Beary said.
The roommate told the police that Seevakumaran, whose family lives in Florida, had exhibited some anti-social behaviour but he had never been seen with weapons or acting violently, the report added.
