BATON ROUGE, La. – Police arrested a Baton Rouge man in the bomb threat that led to the evacuation of the LSU campus earlier this week but don’t believe he is connected to threats made against three other universities recently.
William Bouvay Jr., 42, was taken into custody Tuesday night after an investigation by multiple law enforcement agencies, LSU Police Capt. Cory Lalonde said.
Bouvay was not an LSU student and appeared to have no connection to the campus, Lalonde said. Officials refused to speculate on a motive, saying only that it wasn’t a national security issue.
Col. Mike Edmonson, superintendent of state police, referred to the phone call as a prank and said the “foolishness of an individual” affected thousands of students, parents and workers who were forced to evacuate.
Similar bomb threats were made last week at college campuses in Texas, North Dakota and Ohio.
“We don’t believe at this point that there is any connection to the bomb threats at other universities,” Lalonde said.
Lalonde said police tracked Bouvay down after determining the 911 call Monday came from a deactivated cellphone that could only make emergency calls. Investigators were able to pinpoint the location of the cell phone Tuesday and searched homes in the Baton Rouge neighborhood before identifying Bouvay as a suspect, he said.
