FIT Student In Jail For Detonating Homemade Bomb
By Space Coast Daily // November 26, 2012
Explosion In Dormitory Stairwell
BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – Police have made an arrest following a disturbance Saturday night at Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne where a student detonated a destructive device on campus.
Melbourne Police Department spokesman Sgt. Brian Dohaney said that Florida Tech student Christian Barnes Duke, 19, possessed a destructive device that he made from common household chemicals and items.
The combination of the ingredients used by Duke caused a chemical reaction that brought the compound to a high temperature, causing extreme pressure to build within the container by the expanding gas until the device exploded.
Duke placed this device in a stairwell within the school dorm and detonated it causing a loud blast that disrupted other students who were in the building at the time.
He told police that he learned how to make the device by watching a TV show called “Myth Busters.”
The destructive device used by Duke had great potential to damage property or cause bodily injury, Dohaney said.
Duke was arrested and charged with possessing a destructive device on school property, a third degree felony, and making, possessing, placing and discharging a destructive device, also a third degree felony.
