Via KOCO: Say what?!

The University of Oklahoma has put up a memorial to a student who died when a homemade bomb exploded near the OU football stadium.

A stone with the name of Joel Hinrichs III was placed outside the OU student union by the student affairs division.

Hinrichs died Oct. 1, 2005, when the bomb he built detonated as he sat on a campus bench near Memorial Stadium while a football game was under way. University officials ruled the death an accidental suicide. Hinrichs’ father — Joel Hinrichs Jr. — said the university offered to have the stone placed.

Hat tips: Ryan W. and Brandon Dutcher in OK.

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More from Denver Channel 7 News on reaction to the monument:

The father of a University of Oklahoma student who died after a homemade explosive he was carrying detonated near a packed football stadium said the placement of a memorial to the young man on campus wasn’t his idea.

A football fan attending OU’s Red-White game on April 7 spotted a stone paver outside the student union with Joel Henry Hinrichs III’s name on it.

“I was just kind of horrified,” Jenny Clemons told The Oklahoman. “I don’t think he has any business being out here.”

Look who else has been honored alongside the OU bomber:

Clemons, 50, a hospital nurse, said she was in the stadium when the explosion occurred.

“… I feel like … if he’d been successful he would have killed a whole bunch of us at the football game,” she said.

The stone is engraved “Joel H Hinrichs III” and is toward an end of the patio west of the union.

Other patio stones honor CBS anchor Katie Couric, actor and Oklahoma native James Garner and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, all of whom were given honorary doctorate degrees when they spoke at OU.

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Previous Oklahoma bomber blogging.

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