May 7, 2008
UR Fake-Bearded Suspected Gunman in Custody
University of Richmond officials have confirmed a suspect is in custody after a possible gunman was spotted on campus Tuesday.
Update:
They identified him as Seth A. Newman, 19, of the 1700 block of Chadwick Drive in Henrico County.
Chadwick Drive is just behind Cheswick Park in the Near West End.
Update May 8th from the Times-Dispatch:
A search warrant for the University of Richmond gun scare suspect’s home says he went into a campus library on Tuesday and told a worker there that he had heard people were having sex inside the building.
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.”
Also, the warrant - issued yesterday in Henrico County - states that a person matching the description of the UR suspect was seen leaving St. Joseph’s Home for the Aged at noon Tuesday, shortly before the incident at UR.
Newman, 19, appeared briefly in Richmond General District Court this morning.
When HYSTERIA rules:
Seth Newman, according to web reports faces the following charges:
“…with concealing his identity, which is a felony.” Probably won’t stick, since according to reports, nobody asked him who he was, so it will be a stretch to say wearing a cheezy fake beard conceals anything.
“…charged with impersonating a law enforcement officer and unlawfully wearing clothes of a law enforcement officer, both misdemeanors.” Since they sell those jackets and t-shirts all over the place and, if reports are accurate, Seth did not actually tell anyone he was a Deputy, these two are BS charges. However, since this is Virginia in the time where hysteria rules, Seth may get slapped with probation.
This is my favorite: “Officials say they did recover a pellet gun and it was “very realistic looking.” Ooooh! Seth owns a pellet gun. Even if he is stupid enough to admit having carried it onto the campus, it is still not a crime to have a pellet gun.
Seth is very lucky that one of the responding officers, caught up in the hysteria of the moment, didn’t kill him for having that pellet gun. He would not have been the first or the last kid who was killed by cops who thought a BB gun was the real thing.
Of course cops kill citizens for reaching for their wallets, their cell phones, or any number of benign articles, that in the heat of the moment, become alive in the imagination of the cops as real weapons. Seth was very lucky that he was not killed as a result of the hysteria whipped-up by UR.
I think that this is a link to Seth’s blog: sethyy.motime.com, but can’t confirm it right now. He sounds like a pretty good kid, who might have just let his imagination get out of hand.
I look forward to hearing what was going through his teen-aged mind. I am glad that he is still alive to tell us the tale.
Ah yes, of course it is all the fault of those evil nasty cops.
“gee, officer, I wuzn’t doin’ nuttin’ wrong, just wearing a fake beard and carrying a fake gun. Who ever heard of shooting up a college campus. Ur silly”.
I understand why the police reaction was swift and harsh, in light of other college shootings. But can they really charge this guy with a felony when all he really did was be denied entrance in the Library and wear a fake beard? Or is there more to the story that justifies these charges?
hahaha i know this dude, he doesnt know me but my friend knows him and i kinda know him to but yeah, he was just trying to have some fun i guess he wasnt going to do anything bad, and yes he actually is a pretty good kid, plus i know his younger brother who finished college at the age of 17 sweet ehh.
Yep, they asked him who he was…where are you getting your info from J. Tyler? Don’t you just hate it when people just go into a library to do regular stuff and don’t bother anyone and the next thing you know, you’re arrested for doing nothing! Oh, wait, that’s not what happened. But yet the police keep bringing me down man! ‘Cause when .05% of the country has been wronged, the other 99.95% protected by the cops are just hysterical idiots. If I worked at the library, I would have called the cops too, and would have been more than pleased when they swiftly showed up. And by the way, the guy’s been released on bond and he will get his due process.
Well, here is something more to the story. Friend-o- friend Ruben, did you know about Seth’s closet “naturist” hobby?
Shoot, wrong link. Try that again”
The initial reports did not include the allegation that Seth actually talked to the staff and that is still a disputed point that will probably come out in court.
Since Seth apparently was just playing out some sort of fantasy and no harm was either intended or occurred, I am hopeful that this otherwise good kid is treated leniently and will not have his record permanently marred by this particular goof-ball act. Perhaps a trip to Marine boot camp will help get him on the right track.
SarahW, I find it really weird that you are lurking around naturist sites. It is way more pervy to lurk on such sites than to actually run around naked. I read recently that this pantless stunt is becoming a fad with teens, something akin to the streaking on campus back in the hippie era. A Meet-up group recently staged a mass no-pants stunt on DC buses, and according to the report from the Post, almost nobody noticed! It sounds like innocent, silly fun for these kids and probably is better for the teens than sitting around playing video games all day, or becoming a lurker on nudey sites like SararW.
Tower TV reports suspect armed with a pellet gun.
Seth did speak to the clerk. You can get a copy of the police report. —-
About his self description as a closet nudist - Right. Following Seth Newman’s own internet trail to find out what might be behind his playful stunt is weird. No one would want to know what he’s about or what kind of danger he might actually present to others in the neighborhood.
Seth Newman probably has some serious problems. His acts were dangerous to himself and the community at large, and it indicates he just isn’t ‘right”.
He violated the UR Library rules, which are publicly available to all, which warn of criminal arrest for many of the things he did.
Moreover, multiple unwelcome acts of indecent exposure on the private campus have been recently reported.
I want to know if police are considering Seth Newman a potential suspect in those recently reported crimes or not,
I think its silly of anyone to say his appearance and actions should not have raised alarm. He looked mentally ill, his stated reasons for entering the library and remaining overnight were suggestive of mental illness and prurient obsession, he was carrying a weapon that was a firearm capable of causing injury, and looked like a gun - it was a replica firearm Crossman CO2 pellet gun- and he while he harmed no one, no one could reasonably know what his intentions were until he was apprehended. His presentation was alarming.
If it was a prank, it was meant to shock and alarm and provide him with thrills at the expense of others. So perhaps he was acting with supreme selfishness or even malice. In the light most favorable to him, he is mentally ill and needs some help.
Police confiscated diabetic syringes according to the search warrant affidavit. Seth Newman is a self-described former addict. Perhaps he’s started using again.
OK, you have convinced me, Sarah. You are way more weird than Seth Newman.
Glad to provide some entertainment. FWIW, his speaking to the clerk was in at least one local second-hand report prior to his arrest, and is presented in the search warrant affivdavit and incident report.