No Injuries in 2nd Blast at Florida University; Caller Uses Racial Slurs

A pipe bomb exploded Wednesday in a building at Florida A&M; University, the second blast at the historically black school in less than a month.

No injuries were reported and damage was minor.

In Wednesday’s explosion, a male caller to a Tallahassee television station used racial slurs and said the students at Florida A&M; didn’t need a university. WTXL-TV received a second call laced with profanity and racist remarks after the bomb went off.

“FAMU has seen the beginning of this . . . they got no business having a college where there ain’t nobody . . . smart enough to get a degree . . . this is just the beginning, brother,” the station quoted the caller as saying.

In the first blast, on Aug. 31, a male caller used racial slurs when he called the same station. No one was hurt and there was little damage from that blast.

Authorities also received a call Wednesday warning of a bomb in another campus building, but a search turned up nothing.

“There are obvious common-sense connections you could make,” said Byron Price, FBI supervisor in Tallahassee. But he added that authorities have no concrete evidence linking the two explosions.

Authorities have offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the first bombing.

The bomb that went off Wednesday exploded in a first-floor restroom of Perry Paige Hall, which has four floors of laboratories, offices, classrooms and the Navy ROTC office. The building and several others were evacuated.

Classes were called off for the day but were scheduled to resume today.

School spokesman Eddie Jackson said the school, which has 12,000 students and 119 buildings on campus, stepped up security after the first bomb and will tighten it even more now.

Some students said they no longer feel safe on campus.