Scoliosis Sufferer And Hanna-Barbera Aficionado Detained Following “Misunderstanding”

Not sure what Fred Flintstone has to do with it but whatever:

A troubled student wearing a Fred Flintstone mask and carrying a .50-caliber rifle was arrested at St. John’s University in Queens yesterday afternoon, prompting the authorities to lock down the campus for three hours while they searched for a possible second gunman, the police said.

The student, Omeash Hiraman, a 22-year-old freshman, was walking through the campus carrying a black plastic bag with the gun’s barrel sticking out of it when a campus security guard approached him and grabbed at the weapon, police said.

A struggle followed, and another student, Chris Benson, came by and helped subdue Mr. Hiraman. Mr. Benson and campus security guards restrained him until the police arrived.

The police later determined there was no second gunman. There were no injuries.

The police said Mr. Hiraman’s gun contained one round of black powder-charge ammunition. His lawyer, Anthony J. Colleluori, described the gun as “kind of like a Dick Cheney hunting rifle.” Charges are pending, the police said.

Mr. Colleluori said Mr. Hiraman had graduated from Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan and enrolled at Cornell University, then transferred to St. John’s, a school he “happens to love.” He said his client was “very tired, he’s confused,” and surprised to hear that his arrest had caused an uproar on the campus.

“He’s not a person who would walk into Columbine and shoot people up,” he said.

Mr. Hiraman’s father, Pat, said his son had recently undergone surgery for scoliosis and may have been reacting to medications. “We believe this is a misunderstanding,” he said.

Then there’s the report in the Cornell Daily Sun (where the suspect was enrolled) quoting a former roommate and Stuyvesant grad who “totally saw it coming.”

Update: Who Was That Mask, Man?; result inconclusive.