More than a week after a Toronto university campus was evacuated because of a hoax bomb so convincing it was detonated by police, investigators say their work to identify a suspect and motive continues.
On Aug. 6, Toronto police rushed to the University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus in the afternoon because a suspicious package had been found. The campus was evacuated as bomb disposal experts, paramedics, firefighters and other specialists attended.
Bomb experts inspected the suspicious package with a remote robot, photographed and X-rayed it. The result of that close inspection made them fear it was a real bomb; it was remotely detonated “when safe to do so” more than two hours after the device was discovered.
Get daily news
Speaking on the day of the bomb scare, Toronto Police Duty Insp. Dan Pravica said the device, found inside a university building, “looked like a bomb with wires,” with officials only able to determine it was a “hoax device” much later.
He said police were looking at security footage to determine suspect information and were working to understand a potential motive.
On Thursday, almost nine days after the hoax device was discovered, police told Global News they were not yet ready to share public updates.
“This investigation is still very active (and) ongoing,” a spokesperson said. “We have no further updates at this time. I can tell you U of T has been very cooperative.”
Updates on the investigation will be proactively shared, the force promised.