Indiana University Student Arrested Following String of Arsons on Campus

Indiana University Student Arrested Following String of Arsons on Campus

Sounds like someone is due for a psychological evaluation.

The Indiana Daily Student reports:

IU senior arrested following string of arsons on campus

The Indiana University Police Department arrested an IU senior after investigating numerous campus arsons this month.

Alekhya Koppineni, 21, was charged Wednesday morning with 10 felony counts of arson, according to a press release. All of the incidents were reported in the last 15 days.

“To intentionally set fires in occupied buildings to cause panic and possibly injure people is unacceptable behavior,” IUPD Deputy Chief Shannon Bunger said in the release. “At this time, the fires caused only minor property damage but exhausted university and city resources to respond and investigate.”

Police started investigating after a Dec. 3 fire in Hodge Hall. There was a similar fire Dec. 5 in the Psychology Building. Bunger said Koppineni admitted to one of these fires, but he said police had enough evidence to charge her with both the Dec. 3 and Dec. 5 fires.

In addition to those two fires, Koppineni was charged with setting eight fires Tuesday. One fire was reported in Rawles Hall and two were reported in Jordan Hall.

A student found a fire at 10 a.m. in a Rawles Hall women’s restroom trash can, according to a crime notification email sent Tuesday. At 10:13 a.m., students reported fires in Jordan Hall women’s restroom trash cans.

Three trash can fires were found Tuesday at 1:45 p.m. in bathrooms in the chemistry building, Bunger said. He said no fire alarms went off in any of the incidents and the damage was minimal.

Chemistry faculty members put out the fires, and the Bloomington Fire Department and IUPD quickly showed up to the scene, said Jonathan Karty, assistant chair for administration of the chemistry department.

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