I missed Seth Newman’s Facebook page:
The Richmond Times-dispatch reports, University of Richmonds gun-scare “Lockdown Man”, aka Seth Adam Newman, 19, appeared in court early this morning. A warrant to search Newman’s home potentially confirms some wilder speculation on my part about his intentions, and those second hand reports of “his reasons” linked in previous pub post. The TD article notes:
According to the warrant to search the home of Seth A. Newman, a UR library employee said the suspect was wearing a sheriff’s jacket “stated to her that he was a police officer, and that he had heard that people had been fornicating in the library and that he needed to spend the night.” The worker “asked for identification, he did not produce any, and then left the building.”
WRIC image: Seth cleaned up for Richmond General District Court
Comment by SarahW on 5/8 @ 4:00 pm #
This whole thing has now taken on for me a sad, “Gleens at 19″ vibe. As opposed to an initial bit of fear and put-outedness.
Comment by Jim in KC on 5/8 @ 5:56 pm #
Apparently, weirdos gravitate to libraries. The better half works at a university med center, and I’m constantly hearing her reports of the wackdoodles they have wandering in and out of their library.
I have to assume it has more to do with libraries’ easy accessibility and wide-open nature than anything sinister to do with book-learnin’ and stuff.
Comment by SarahW on 5/8 @ 6:08 pm #
Boatwright Library is a rather high-tone place, and the library is less attractive to nuts than most, I would guess. That’s one thing that makes the even all the wierder and scarier. UR is a fairly tony private college, and it’s a well appointed library without a “come on homeless guys” feel. Odd ducks float in the nearby lake, but not usually in the stacks, though I suppose it has the usual sort of clandestine meeting spots for students the state schools nearby have.
I have to believe the kid had developed some obsessive ideas about cruising. He may actually have now or in the past had a community or reciprocal membership while he went to community college. Maybe he had even an experience that made him uncomfy. Or was just hoping for one.
Comment by Jim in KC on 5/8 @ 6:21 pm #
If I was doing an investigation on it, I’d check the last couple of months’ worth of surveillance tapes and see if he’d been hanging around for a while.
Doesn’t Virginia allow open carry of firearms? I guess I’d expect most universities to have drunk the “Gun Free Zone” kool-aid and posted themselves against firearms, but maybe not a private school. Just trying to figure out if they called the cops because he had a gun, or because of his weird story.
Comment by SarahW on 5/8 @ 6:46 pm #
UofR is a private school, FWIW.
But here’s what Seth did – He had on this absolutely outlandish fail of a police disguise. So, with glued on grey-crepe whiskers, a bucket hat pulled way down over his head, and a crazily holstered but very realistic-looking crossman CO2 pellet gun, and big old army duffel bag, and his SHERIFF jacket, he goes up to the desk clerk and announces he is a law enforcement officer, and must stay in the building overnight because of reports of students fornicating in the building. He was asked by the nearly non-plussed clerk to provide identification. Which he declined to do. He wasn’t allowed to go into the library, and he just left the building.
And he went out on the lovely patio with umbrellad picnic tables and quietly lounging students, and started pulling off his fake beard in hunks and stuffing them in his ridiculous bag, along with his “SHERIFF” jacket. And just sort of saunters off with a gun holstered at his waist.
So, reasonably, that set off alarms in rational folks for nut… make that”Nut”. Or “NUT!! ” with firearm touring the campus and not to be taken for granted as harmless.
So, I’m satisfied the cops were called because he looked like a crazy dangerous person. That was actually the distress call that went out – “dangerous person on campus.”
He doesn’t face any weapons charges. Newman, 19, appeared briefly in Richmond General District Court this morning.
He was charged yesterday on Richmond warrants with a felony count of hiding his identity and misdemeanor counts of impersonating a police officer and acting like a police officer.
Newman has been arraigned and released on 10,000, bond, with his hearing set down for July 3. The judge did order him to stay off UR property.
Comment by Jim in KC on 5/8 @ 7:03 pm #
Yeah, I knew it was private, which was why I was curious about what spurred the concern. Sounds like it was *mostly* the weird behavior, although the fact that he’s acting weird AND obviously armed has to add to things.
Pellet guns are real weapons, of course, if not the most deadly of calibers. Christmas Story notwithstanding, they can be dangerous. We used ‘em to hunt frogs when I was a kid. (Mmmmm, frog legs!)
I can see charges for impersonating a police officer, but I assume hiding your identity is a crime only under certain very defined circumstances–otherwise, seems like it would suck to be an actor in Richmond.
Comment by SarahW on 5/8 @ 7:58 pm #
Absolutely. Nuts with guns on campus, pretty much a combination I’d like to avoid.
I want to look up the “identity hiding’ statute myself. That’s the felony charge. So, I’m presuming it’s donning a disguise in commission of a crime, or a leftover KKK mask law.
He was dressed neatly and conservatively in court, and not acting ku-ku crazy. I’m thinking his felony charge will be reduced at some point after a medical/mental evaluation, so long as he stays away from the Campus and stays out of trouble.
———————-
Yep, it’s Virginia’s mask statute. Do not attempt to converse with Jeff in your Kleagle hood on Virginia soil unless you meet one of the exceptions. Which, acting in a show is one of them. Performance art, not so much, unless you have permission of a private property owner.
http://law.justia.com/virginia/codes/toc1802000/18.2-422.html
Comment by Jim in KC on 5/8 @ 10:01 pm #
Ah, that explains why it’s a felony, I guess. And I notice that trick-or-treaters also seem to be exempt, so that’s good.
I suspect you’re right; they threw that in to put a good scare in him and give them something to wheel and deal with later.
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[...] *A library employee told police that a male in a fake beard and sheriff’s jacket stated to her that he was a police officer and that he had heard that people were fornicating in the library and that he needed to spend the night. Posted by SarahW @ 2:20 pm | Trackback Share This [...]
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