Federal agencies are investigating whether the employee who reported an explosion at Boston’s Northeastern University may have lied to investigators and staged the incident, officials said Wednesday.
Investigators identified inconsistencies in the employee’s statement and began to question his words because his injuries did not match those typically seen in an explosion, an official said.
The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on details of an ongoing investigation.
The Northeastern staff member said Tuesday night that the rigid plastic briefcase exploded on the Boston campus, causing minor injuries, according to authorities.
The briefcase contained a disjointed note criticizing virtual reality and also making references to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, a police official said. No explosive material was found and they do not believe the package was sent by the Postal Service, the official added.
The official described the case as a “Pelican type,” a company that makes rugged cases to protect sensitive equipment.
A spokesman for the FBI office in Boston declined to comment Wednesday, saying the investigation “remains very active and fluid.”
In a message posted on its website, Northeastern said Wednesday that the campus is safe.
“Events such as the incident that occurred on our Boston campus last night can create or increase anxiety for many of us,” the post, attributed to Chancellor David Madigan and Chancellor Kenneth Henderson, states. “We would like to underscore what was communicated to our community last night: Multiple law enforcement agencies have determined the campus to be safe.”
The campus opened normally for classes and other activities on Wednesday. Therapy and support services were made available to students, faculty, and other staff members.
However, despite the assurances the school has offered, many students remain concerned.
“Every time I go to class or to the cafeteria or anywhere in general, there are people talking about what’s going on and what happened yesterday,” said student Lisbeth Martinez. “There are a lot of people who are still anxious and obviously scared with the situation.”
The package delivered to Holmes Hall detonated shortly after 7 p.m. Tuesday when a staff member opened it, the university said in a statement. The employee, a 45-year-old man, was taken to hospital after sustaining minor injuries to his hand, police said. The name of the victim was not released.
The Boston bomb squad neutralized a second package near the city’s Museum of Fine Arts, which is near the Northeastern University campus.
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Associated Press writers Mark Pratt and Rodrique Ngowi in Boston contributed to this report.