The University of Central Florida's main campus may have been targeted for an attack by a student found dead in his dorm room early Monday morning.
That student was James Seevakumaran, 30, a business student at UCF.
Updates from UCF ▼
The Tower 1 residence hall, in Knights Plaza, was evacuated around 1 a.m., and remains evacuated while police investigate the death of a male student who appeared to have shot himself, along with a bag of improvised explosive devices found nearby.
Classes were cancelled until noon. The university said essential personnel should report to work, but other employees were asked to stay off campus until noon.
Latest updates from UCF
5:15 p.m.
Florida Highway Patrol says they arrested James Seevakumaran in 2006 in Seminole County. They say he did not have a proper driver's license, and put a tag on his vehicle, which was not assigned to it. That's the only arrest UCF Police know of.
4:20 p.m.
UCF President Hitt, asked about whether this might lead to UCF allowing guns on campus, said that would be a recipe for disaster.
4:13 p.m.
Police received a 911 call from a roommate who said the student pulled a gun on him. They say that 911 call was extremely helpful in getting police to the tower.
4:08 p.m.
UCF Police say Seevakumaran, pulled a fire alarm to get people out in the open. Police believe rapid response from law enforcement made him rethink is plan. Weapons to be sent to FBI for analysis. The rifle was an American tactical rifle. Police say Seevakumaran also had four improvised explosive devices in a bag, and a couple hundred rounds of ammunition.
4 p.m.
The gunman is identified as James Seevakumaran, a business major. The 30-year-old had not enrolled for the spring semester. Police said evidence found in the room showed it was a planned attack. He was found dead with a .22 rifle and .45 handgun nearby.
1:20 p.m.
UCF's Counseling and Psychological Services is offering crisis services Monday in its main office, as well as at the Veterans Academic Resource Center. Students can meet individually or in small groups with CAPS clinicians. In-person crisis services are available until 6 p.m. Monday at both locations, and telephone crisis services will be available thereafter until the office opens again at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
If the need arises, expanded hours for in-person crisis services will be provided.
Students can call the CAPS main office at (407) 823-2811 to schedule an appointment, or can walk in to either location for services.
For telephone crisis services after 6 p.m., students can call (407) 823-2811 and select option 5.
Noon
UCF's main campus has reopened. However, Tower 1 remains evacuated at this time during the ongoing investigation.
11:10 a.m.
All explosive devices will be removed from Tower 1 before noon, when classes resume.
Tower 1 is still an active crime scene, and will remain evacuated until further notice.
11 a.m.
UCF's main campus will resume normal operations at noon.
Tower 1 remains evacuated. The Veteran's Academic Resource Center is still open for Tower 1 residents.
Eplosives have been rendered safe.
Faculty members have been asked to be understanding of students who may not have class materials Monday.
UCF has confirmed the person found dead was a student.
A news conference has been scheduled for 3:45 p.m. Monday at UCF.
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UCF police said they received a fire alarm call around 12:20 a.m. As they responded to that call, police then received a 911 call reporting a man with a gun.
When police arrived, they found a student with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. They also found a bag of improvised explosive devices, along with a handgun and an assault weapon.
Tower 1 was evacuated, and Parking Garage G was also closed. The parking garage has since reopened.
West Plaza and Victory Way are also blocked during the investigation.
"It was 12 o'clock and I was doing homework," said Jason Smith, a student who was evacuated. "The alarm went off and I figured it was too late to be a drill, so we just got up and left."
UCF sent a text message alert to students about the suspicious death, informing students the campus was closed until noon, but that there was no threat to the campus community.
"University police responded immediately when we received a fire alarm call and a subsequent 911 call," said UCF police Chief Richard Beary. "The safety of our students in Tower 1 and our entire campus community is our top priority."
One student, however, said he would have liked to know sooner.
"I would think that they would let us know faster, because it was at least two hours -- because it was at least 2 o'clock in the morning -- and this happened at midnight, and we didn't know anything for at least two hours," said student Nick Eckman. "It's sad that it was a student, but at least there weren't high casualties."
The evacuated students were initially encouraged to go to the Student Union or the Recreation and Wellness Center annex for counseling services. Counselors have been moved to the Veteran's Academic Resource Center as of 7 a.m. Food, water and counseling services were made available to evacuated students.
UCF said the Orange County Sheriff's Office and the FBI are assisting UCF police. The Sheriff's Office bomb squad has also responded to examine the explosives.
"It's scary," said student Ryan Elkin. "Obviously, it's in the news and stuff, with all the school shootings, but there's not much you can do about it. Obviously they took precautions and emptied out the whole building."
UCF said classes and operations in the Central Florida Research Park and all other campus locations were not impacted, and will continue as scheduled Monday.
Mugshots.com ID: 2662962
Booking No: 200600014809
Name: JAMES SEEVAKUMARAN
Birth date: 10/14/1982 Location: O
Arrested By: Florida Highway Patrol - Deland
Arrest Date: 10/30/2006
Massacre Thwarted at University of Central Florida
(ORLANDO, Fla.) — A planned massacre was thwarted Monday at the University of Central Florida where a student who had assembled hundreds of rounds of ammunition and homemade bombs took his own life as cops closed in on him.
A 30-year-old man who was in the process of being kicked out of his dorm at Tower 1 on the UCF campus had written out a timeline and elaborate plan for how to harm the greatest number of individuals during the planned attack, university Police Chief Richard Beary said.
Shortly after midnight, James Oliver Seevakumaran pulled the fire alarm at the Tower 1 residence hall and then went back into his apartment to get his weapons, Beary said.
While police were responding to the fire alarm call at the dorm, Seevakumaran’s roommate called 911 to say that Seevakumaran 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 and fire the weapons and detonate bombs.
Instead, police arrived at the suspect’s apartment in Tower 1 with the knowledge that there was a report of a man with a gun. Beary said that officers were armed when they entered Seevakumaran’s apartment.
They freed the roommate from the bathroom and found Seevakumaran dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Beary said.
The roommate told police that Seevakumaran, whose family lives in Florida, had exhibited some anti-social behavior but that the roommates had never seen him with weapons or act violently.
The university said that he had been enrolled as a student at UCF from fall 2010 to fall 2012. He did not enroll for the spring 2013 term, and the university was in the process of moving him out of the residence hall. A spokesman said that the university takes a “compassionate” position toward students that are no longer enrolled, instead of forcing them off campus immediately.
Police said Seevakumaran obtained the weapons at an Orlando-area gun shop, and that he began amassing ammunition in early February.
Classes resumed at the University of Central Florida on Monday after police removed the bombs and an assault weapon from a dorm. The campus was reopened around noon.
A bomb squad from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department removed the explosive devices.
“University police responded immediately when we received a fire alarm call and a subsequent 911 call,” Beary said in a statement released in the morning by the school. “The safety of our students in Tower 1 and our entire campus community is our top priority.”
Students who were evacuated from their dorm rooms in the Tower 1 residence hall were housed at the UCF Arena until they were allowed back into their rooms, the school said.
Explosive Devices Found on University of Central Florida Campus
(ORLANDO, Fla.) — Morning classes were canceled and hundreds of students were evacuated from the University of Central Florida campus in Orlando on Monday after explosive devices were found while police were investigating a death.
The discovery at the Tower 1 residence hall happened shortly after midnight while campus police were responding to a fire alarm call.
“A call came into UCF police about a fire alarm in Tower 1. On the way to respond to that, a 911 call came in about an armed man in the tower,” UCF spokesman Grant Heston said.
“When police arrived, they found a victim who died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Tower 1 was evacuated, and Parking Garage G was closed,” the university said in a statement. “As investigators reviewed the scene, they found a handgun, an assault weapon and IEDs.”
UCF has canceled classes on its main campus until noon Monday while police investigate. Non-essential employees were also asked to stay home until then.
“We don’t believe there’s an active danger to the campus community beyond the areas in which we’ve shut down here,” Heston said.
Student found dead in Florida dorm room planned campus attack, police say
A former student found dead in a University of Central Florida dorm room along with makeshift explosives and weapons was planning an attack on the school's Orlando campus, the university police chief said on Monday.
The man’s body was found at about 1 a.m. at the Tower 1 residence hall, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
A fire alarm had gone off less than an hour earlier, and as campus police responded, a 911 call came in reporting a man with a gun, police said. When police went to investigate, they discovered the man’s body as well as a .45 caliber handgun, a .22 caliber tactical weapon and four homemade explosive devices. Hundreds of rounds of ammunition were also found, police said.
The explosives were found in a backpack near the student. They have since been disabled and removed, university officials said.
“Within the last hour we've discovered some material in the dorm room that makes this look like it was part of a planned attack on UCF campus,” university spokesman Grant Heston said in an afternoon news briefing.
The dead man was identified as James Oliver Seevakumaran, a 30-year-old former student who, though not enrolled for the current semester, was still living in the dorm pending his removal from the tower, officials said.
Notes and writings found in the dorm room indicate that Seevakumaran had a timeline of violence planned, university Police Chief Richard Beary said. Beary speculated the fire alarm was set off by Seevakumaran to draw people out in the open.
"While the crime scene processing was underway in that room we found some notes and some writings that indicated that this was a planned attack," Beary said. "This individual had laid out a timeline and laid out some of what we feel were going to be his actions. We’re pretty confident the fast response and some other situations maybe made him change his mind. At that point, he took his own life."
The man’s roommate had placed the 911 call and locked himself in the bathroom, Beary said. Responding officers were able to locate the roommate and rescue him. In the bedroom, they found Seevakamaran’s body. Later they discovered the weapons and explosives.
Morning classes at the university were canceled, and the dorm, which houses 500 students, was evacuated along with a nearby parking garage. The school reopened at about noon.
The dorm near the college’s sports arena remained a crime scene most of the day as officers from the FBI, Orange County Sheriff’s Office and campus police investigated, university officials said. It was reopened in late afternoon, though the third floor where the body and explosives were found were still closed.
Counseling services were being offered to students.
"It could have been a bad day for everybody here," said Beary. "All things considered, I think we were very blessed at the University of Central Florida."
