Statehouse bomb threat creates \nminor disturbance\nINDIANAPOLIS -- A Rushville man arrested for threatening to bomb the Statehouse never posed a serious threat to state government, an Indiana State Police spokesman said Sunday.\nLocal police found two crude bombs in the trunk of a car belonging to Randal A. Robbins on Saturday, and state police explosives experts safely detonated them later, 1st Sgt. Dave Bursten said.\nRobbins, 18, was being held Sunday in the Rush County Jail on preliminary charges of possession of explosive devices and violation of a protective order.\n"You have an unsophisticated person who made an unsophisticated, improvised explosive device," Bursten said. "The Statehouse was never threatened other than his verbal threat, and he never got within 40 miles of the building."\nRushville is about 40 miles southeast of Indianapolis.\nThe bombs were large enough to injure someone but might not have been lethal unless someone was extremely close when they exploded, Bursten said.\nGov. Mitch Daniels had no comment on the case, his press secretary, Jane Jankowski, said Sunday.\nIt was not clear Sunday what Robbins' motive may have been.\nPolice began seeking Robbins shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday after receiving a tip from a confidential informant. Rush County sheriff's officers and Greensburg police found him at the home of a relative who had apparently obtained a protective order against him, Bursten said.
Final suspect in triple slayings surrenders\nCROWN POINT -- A Gary man believed to be the triggerman in a triple-slaying surrendered to police Saturday, ending a four-day manhunt.\nSaajad Q. Rasheed, 22, surrendered at the Lake County Jail on Saturday afternoon with his attorney at his side, according to a news release from the Hobart Police Department.\nHe and two other men, Carl Major, 24, of Merrillville and Kirby Oliver of Burlington, Iowa, face murder charges in Tuesday's execution-style killings at a Hobart home during an apparent robbery.\nOliver and Major have fingered Rasheed as the triggerman when the trio kicked down the door and entered the home, killing two women and a man and wounding two others.\nHobart police said all three victims were shot in the back of the head. They were identified as Lindsay M. Davidson, 20, of Hebron, and Andrew Espinoza and Brittney Hott, both 19-year-old Hobart residents.\nMajor and Oliver were formally charged Friday, at which time a judge entered an innocent plea on their behalf.\nThey, along with Rasheed, each face one count of murder in the perpetration of a robbery and two counts each of attempted murder and aggravated battery.
Zoo walrus dies after swallowing pine cone\nINDIANAPOLIS -- A Pacific walrus that died during surgery to remove a pine cone it swallowed was the second walrus to die in the past five years at the Indianapolis Zoo after swallowing a foreign object.\nThe adult female, named Sitka, was unable to digest the pine cone she swallowed when it somehow ended up in her pen. She died Thursday during an hour-long abdominal surgery.\n"It's very devastating," said Dr. Jan Hawkins, a Purdue University veterinarian who led a 10-person surgical team. "We did absolutely everything that could be done."\nThe surgery was a high-risk procedure for the 1,300-pound walrus because such mammals generally do not fare well under anesthesia, Hawkins said. Although doctors were able to remove the obstruction, Sitka died before waking.\nZoo officials do not know how the pine cone ended up in Sitka's enclosure.\nThey are investigating whether a visitor may have tossed it into the walruses' exhibit after picking it up from another area of the zoo where those trees grow.\nThe zoo staff feeds Pacific walruses like Sitka a strict diet of fish, clams and other marine life. The incident serves as a tragic reminder of why zoo rules permit guests to feed certain animals only in designated areas.\nIn 2000, Erebus, another Pacific walrus, died from an abdominal blockage caused when he swallowed a large rubber cap.
