BOSTON — Troopers arrested an MIT student at gunpoint Friday after she walked into Logan International Airport wearing a computer circuit board and wiring on her sweatshirt. Authorities call it a fake bomb; she called it art.
Star Simpson’s attorney said the charges against her were an overreaction, but authorities expressed amazement that someone would wear such a device eight months after a similar scare in Boston, and six years after two of the jets hijacked in the Sept. 11 attacks took off from Logan.
“I’m shocked and appalled that somebody would wear this type of device to an airport,” said State Police Maj. Scott Pare, the airport’s commanding officer.
Simpson, 19, of Hawaii, has expertise in electronics and even received a Congressional citation for her work in robotics, according to her lawyer.
She wore the white circuit board on her chest over a black hooded sweatshirt, Pare said. The battery-powered rectangular device had nine flashing lights, and Simpson had Play-Doh in her hands, he said.
A Massachusetts Port Authority staffer manning an information booth in the terminal became suspicious when Simpson — wearing the device — approached to ask about an incoming flight, Pare said. Simpson then walked outside, and the staffer notified a nearby trooper.
The trooper, joined by others with submachine guns, confronted Simpson at a traffic island in front of the terminal.
“She was immediately told to stop, to raise her hands and not to make any movement, so we could observe all her movements to see if she was trying to trip any type of device,” Pare said. “Had she not followed the protocol, we might have used deadly force.”
He added, “She’s lucky to be in a cell as opposed to the morgue.”
Two phrases that looked hand-drawn — “Socket to me” and “Course VI” — were written on the back of Simpson’s sweatshirt, which authorities displayed to the media. Course VI appears to refer to MIT’s major of electrical engineering and computer science.
“She said that it was a piece of art and she wanted to stand out on career day,” Pare said. “She claims that it was just art, and that she was proud of the art and she wanted to display it.”
There was a career fair at the university Thursday, according to the university’s Web site.
Simpson was charged with possessing a hoax device. A not-guilty plea was entered for her and she was released on $750 bail.
Pare said Simpson had taken a subway to the airport, but he was not sure if she had the device on at that time.
Ross Schreiber, who was appointed to represent Simpson, said she was not a risk to flee, cooperated with authorities and was a good student with no prior convictions. He said they would fight the charges.
“I would characterize it as almost being paranoid at this point,” he said of authorities’ response.
He said she had gone to the airport to meet her boyfriend. “She was there for legitimate purposes,” Schreiber said.
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