Student arrested for detonating an 'overpressure device' at Landmark College

Posted Tuesday, October 25, 2011 5:31 am

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PUTNEY -- Police have arrested a student from Shoreham in connection with detonation of an explosive device at Landmark College.

On Monday, Landmark College Security contacted the Vermont State Police stating that one of the suspects in the case had confessed.

During an interview at the college's security office conducted by Sgt. Mike Sorensen, 23-year-old Kevin Spitzner admitted to building and detonating an "overpressure device" using some commonly found household items.

Spitzner told Sorensen that he placed the device on a ledge near his dormitory on Friday with the intention of scaring one of his dorm mates with whom he had been having a loud music feud since the beginning of the semester.

He was cited for possession of a destructive device, a felony.

In a letter to parents of students at Landmark College, President Peter Eden stated that the incident was a result of "poor judgment by one student who created a ‘compression device' in a plastic soda bottle, which resulted in the bottle bursting."

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Eden continued, "while this was purely a student prank, we take these matters very seriously. The student has been identified and is no longer on campus pending a formal Landmark hearing."

The device used was a plastic container that had at least two substances that when mixed caused a chemical reaction producing a gas inside the closed container, Sorensen said.

"When the pressure became too great the container ruptured and the explosion resulted," he said.

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No one was injured as a result of the incident, Sorensen said.

"Had someone been nearby when the explosion occurred, there would have been some shrapnel risk or the possibility of chemical exposure," he said. "Fortunately no one was close enough to be injured."

Sorensen added, "Spitzner's intention was merely to scare the person whom he was having the feud with, not to injure or harm anyone."

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The explosion was described as "loud as a 12-gauge shotgun blast," according to campus security.

Members of the Vermont State Police and Putney Fire Department were on scene for nearly three hours collecting evidence and interviewing witnesses, Sorensen said.

In a letter to students, Michael Luciani, dean of students, wrote that there hasn't been a device like the one that burst on Friday used on the college's campus, but that type of device has been used in incidents of vandalism, pranks and "out of curiosity elsewhere."

"From the beginning, we did not believe that the use of this device on campus was intended to cause harm to any person or damage to any property," Luciani wrote.

Spitzner was cited to appear in Windham County Superior Court Criminal Division on Nov. 29, to answer the charge.

Josh Stilts can be reached at jstilts@reformer.com or 802-254-2311 ext. 273.