Roger Williams Officials: Student Charged with Bomb Threat Cannot Return in the Future

Nearly a week after an ELS student allegedly made a bomb threat at the school, officials have sent additional information to students, faculty and staff about the incident.

The Public Affairs Office sent a campus-wide e-mail to students, faculty and staff on Tuesday evening that reiterated the fact that they've issued a no-trespass order against 25-year-old Abdulrahman Khalid Althuwayb and that he will not be allowed on campus, or into the ELS Language Center, in the future. The e-mail was signed by Vice President for Student Affairs John King and Director of Public Safety John Blessing.

According to the e-mail, officials wanted to clarify that Althuwayb is a student of the ELS Language Center located on campus and is not currently an enrolled student at Roger Williams University. The e-mail also confirms that the incident took place in the Hawk’s Nest in the Recreation Center on campus and not in the Dining Center as previously reported.

The e-mail goes on to explain that officials believed that no one was directly in harms way following the threat, which is why students were only provided with , including that the individual had been issued a no-trespass order, that was sent in an e-mail on Friday, May 6.

The full text of the e-mail sent on Tuesday evening can be found below.

Brian Clark, Executive Director of Public Affairs, says that university officials have come to an agreement to not permit members of the media on campus to interview students about the incident in an effort to prevent students, particularly international students, from being singled out.

The letter sent out Tuesday was the second distributed on campus since last Friday, May 6.

Althuwayb, a Saudi Arabian ELS student, was charged with a felony on Thursday, May 5, for allegedly telling a campus worker that

He is currently being held on $10,000 bail with surety. According to Amy Kempe, Director of Public Information for the Attorney General's office, the route of prosecution for Althuwayb will be decided after the sends the case investigative package to the Attorney General's office. After the Attorney General receives the package, it will be reviewed to see if the office can move forward with the investigation. 

According to RI Court Connect, Althuwayb's pre-arraignment conference is set to be held on July 8 at 6th District Court.

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story stated that Roger Williams University officials had decided not to speak to the media about the incident. Public Affairs Executive Director Brian Clark has since clarified that they will speak about the incident, but are keeping media from speaking to students on campus about what happened.

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From: Affairs, Public <publicaffairs@rwu.edu>
Date: Tue, May 10, 2011 at 5:05 PM
Subject: [ALL-STUDENTS] A Message from Student Affairs and Public Safety
To: ALL-STUDENTS@rwu.edu


May 10, 2011
 
Students, Faculty and Staff –
 
Given that Bristol Police Department has concluded its investigation into last Thursday’s incident at Roger Williams University and shared details publicly, we are able to provide more information than possible last week. We hope the following points will help clarify inaccuracies included in some media accounts.
 
--Abdulrahman Althuwayb was a student at ELS Language Center – not a currently enrolled student at Roger Williams University. Our Public Safety team has issued a no-trespass order, and he will not be permitted access to the RWU campus, including the ELS facility, in the future. At the moment, he remains in custody as he awaits the next steps in the judicial process.
 
--The incident occurred in the Hawk’s Nest in the Recreation Center – not the Dining Commons. Public Safety officers were on the scene within minutes of receiving the call and began gathering information.
 
--Less than a half hour after the original call, Public Safety asked Bristol Police to respond to campus. The police transported Mr. Althuwayb to the police department and initiated a full investigation.
 
--In the course of investigating the incident, the responding officers from both Public Safety and from external law enforcement agencies determined that there was no reason to believe anyone’s immediate safety was at risk. The comments attributed to Mr. Althuwayb referred to a future threat, and he was immediately located and removed from campus permanently.
 
As we noted on Friday, had Public Safety or the local authorities identified any immediate concerns related to the safety of the campus community, the University would have notified you via our emergency communications tools.
 
Should you have any concerns or information to share, we urge you to contact Public Safety at x3611.
 
Sincerely,
 
 
John King                                                                        
Vice President for Student Affairs                                    
 
John Blessing
Director of Public Safety