Graduate Charged in College Hostage Case

A legally blind college graduate was being held on $1-million bail after allegedly taking 28 people hostage during a Fairfield University class, claiming to have a bomb.

Patrick Arbelo, 24, of Bridgeport was charged with 28 counts of first-degree kidnapping. The hostages were released gradually over seven hours, and no one was hurt. The suspect allegedly threatened to use a bomb, but police said the box he was carrying was not a bomb.

Student Necole Arrigo, 19, said Arbelo told the class that he was a member of “the National United Federalist Socialist Party” and read what she called a “modern-day Nazi statement.”