Two young men arrested in explosion at Harvard Medical School: FBI
Two young men from Massachusetts have been arrested in connection with a middle-of-the-night explosion at Harvard Medical School, the FBI said.
Logan David Patterson, 18, and Dominick Frank Cardoza, 20, were arrested early Tuesday and charged each with one count of conspiracy to cause injury by means of an explosive, federal prosecutors said.
No one was injured in the explosion, which occurred on the fourth floor of the Goldenson Building shortly before 3 a.m., authorities said.
Police are looking for two suspects in the case.
Harvard University Police Department
The explosive, which detonated inside a wooden locker at the research laboratory, was believed to be a Roman candle firework, according to Leah Belaire Foley, U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts.
Patterson and Cardoza conspired to commit an “extremely dangerous act,” said FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Ted Docks.
This “is not a harmless college prank. It’s a federal crime,” he said, adding that there could have been victims if people were in the building at the time.
Foley confirmed that the suspects do not attend Harvard. Patterson and Cardoza were apparently visiting the nearby Wentworth Institute of Technology for Halloween parties, prosecutors said.
“This investigation is ongoing,” Docks said, adding, “There is no evidence of any ongoing threat to the university or the public.”
Early Saturday, surveillance cameras captured two suspects with their faces covered walking near the medical school and lighting what appeared to be fireworks with Roman candles, Foley said. The suspects then allegedly climbed scaffolding and accessed the roof of the building, he said.
Shortly afterward, campus police were alerted to a fire alarm by an explosion on the fourth floor of the building, where there is a research laboratory for the medical school’s neurobiology department, Foley said.
Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.
Sergi Reboredo/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Security video showed the two suspects leaving the building and fleeing the area, Foley said.
The FBI recovered video that allegedly shows Cardoza taking off his pants and throwing them into a trash can after fleeing the scene, Docks said. Investigators later recovered his pants, he said.
The public called authorities when they recognized the suspects, Foley said.
“These two men were allegedly bragging about what they did to their friends,” Docks said.
