View Childers' criminal record. View the arrest details from the Tulsa Count courts.
Read a reporter's blog on the story.
Check out a timeline of events.
A former OU student who allegedly pointed a gun at a professor on campus Friday afternoon was arrested in Broken Arrow at 8:25 p.m.
Michael Joseph Childers, 27, allegedly attacked Mano Yasuda, a Japanese instructor, on the second floor of Kaufman Hall.
Students and faculty on the second and third floors of Kaufman said they heard screams from the hallway around 3 p.m. Friday. They emerged from their classrooms and offices to find a woman struggling with a young man dressed entirely in black.
The man appeared to be attempting to throw her down the stairs. The struggling pair was approached by students and other faculty members, and the man fled before police arrived.
Childers, who was charged with a computer crime against Yasuda in 2007, was identified as the suspect in an e-mail sent to OU students and faculty by OU President David Boren an hour and a half after the attack.
The e-mail said Childers was not a danger to the general university community, so the campus was not locked down.
Childers had run from the building and left campus in his car by the time police arrived. He was believed to be heading toward his mother’s home when he got word that the police were already there.
Kody Hastings, Childers’s friend and former classmate, told a Daily reporter at 6:25 p.m. that he had talked to Childers in the past hour.
Hastings said Childers told him that as Childers headed toward his mother's home, his mother called and told him she was talking to the police, so Childers kept driving.
He was ultimately arrested in Broken Arrow, about 135 miles from Norman but much closer to were Childers grew up. He graduated from Union High School in Tulsa in 2000.
OUPD Lt. Bruce Chan said detectives from OUPD are on their way to Broken Arrow to interview Childers.
“I just can’t believe he would do something like this, that’s why I called him to see what happened and see if he was a danger to himself,” Hastings said.
Other former classmates and professors said Childers was nice in class, participated in class activities and was well-liked by his professors.
According to Childers' Facebook profile, he was studying economics and Japanese and scheduled to graduate from OU in 2008.
However, there is no record that Childers graduated, and he is not enrolled at OU this semester.
Hastings said that Yasudas is a former professor of Childers’s.
According to court documens, Childers illegally hacked into one of Yasuda’s computer accounts in 2007. He gained access to her OU 4x4 account and bought products online, which he had shipped to her house “as a means to harass and intimidate Yasuda.”
In 2008, Childers was charged with violating the Computer Crimes Act, a misdemeanor.
A Web site listed on Childers' Facebook profile displays eight poems, two of which refer to "Mano" and police and law enforcement.
The alleged attack on Friday created temporary chaos in Kaufman Hall, where professors and students said they heard screaming as a scuffle broke out.
Rob Clark, sociology professor, said he was in his office on the third floor of Kaufman about 3 p.m. when he heard a woman screaming. He walked to the second floor and saw an instructor and man dressed in black struggling.
They were surrounded by students and other faculty members. He went back upstairs to call police.
When he returned, witnesses told Clark that the man attempted to throw the woman down the stairs, and when he failed, he ran away.
A graduate assistant who asked to remain anonymous said she was in her office on the second floor of Kaufman Hall when she heard screaming and commotion outside her door.
She said she walked outside and saw a young man attempting to drag a woman down the hall.
Several other professors surrounded the struggling pair and the assailant broke away from the group.
A student who also asked to remain anonymous said she was on her way to the language lab on the second floor of Kaufman Hall when she saw an instructor struggling with a man dressed in black.
She said students were screaming and saying, "It's a professor," referring to the target of the attack.
The student saw the assailant release his victim and run away.
The attack occurred between 3 and 3:45 p.m. Police were still interviewing witnesses at 4:30 p.m. At 5:21 p.m., Boren released a statement to the university explaining that a gun had been pointed at a professor during an altercation, but the assailant was not a threat to the general university community.
It said the incident was considered “a domestic dispute between two individuals” and no one else was at risk.
Look at Childers' Facebook profile.
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JJanowiak 3 years, 3 months ago
Hey everyone, it's time for Unnecessary Insertion of Political Agenda Time!
EN 3 years, 3 months ago
OMG - he only has 43 facebook friends. Loser.
forr4126 3 years, 3 months ago
I'd comment on EN's maturity and intelligence (or general and obvious lack thereof) but I'm not sure I need to. His comment speaks for itself.
briareus 3 years, 3 months ago
It is false to phrase this debate as "guns on campus," vs. "no guns on campus." In fact, we already have guns on campus. Has anyone noticed that the OU Police carry sidearms? The moderate viewpoint is that we need more of the right sort of people carrying weapons, and fewer of the bad sort.
wittlebibbit 3 years, 3 months ago
It seems that it is a more serious matter to carry around a yoga mat or an umbrella than to carry around an actual firearm.
briareus 3 years, 3 months ago
There seems to be a considerable segment of our society that does not understand guns, and feels a revulsion to them. They believe that anyone who carries a weapon will behave the same way as Homer Simpson on the infamous Simposon's episode where Homer joins the NRA. Homer carried his gun everywhere, and used it to turn light switches on/off by firing bullets at them.
People have seen too many Hollywood movies, have never handled a gun in their life, and generally have not figured out that we already have something like 60,000 people in Oklahoma with concealed carry permits. If there have been no problems of the sort they hypothesize in the last twenty years amongst more than a million people with concealed-carry permits in numerous states, then why in the world would a rational person that these problems would suddenly emerge if concealed carry were allowed on college campuses?
eightbitgirl 3 years, 3 months ago
Is it really necessary to link to this guy's Facebook profile?
east9072 3 years, 3 months ago
It did not happen anytime after 3:15 p.m., because I was in the language lab when I heard a woman scream "Help, Help", but thought it was a joke. I left the lab at 3:15, and they said that the man was already out of the building and that we could leave if we wanted. I'm not sure of the exact time b/c like I said, we really didn't know what was going on, but I was in the lab from about 2:27-3:14 p.m.....I would say it was from 2:50-3:00....it was definitely not 3:45.
DrFuego 3 years, 3 months ago
I'm amazed that you think that this situation could have somehow been improved by allowing students to concealed carry. Let's recap the reported story: no gunshots were fired, Childers was surrounded by unwanted attention, and he tried to run for it. If any bystander with a gun decided to be a hero in this case the results could have been disastrous--at least one person would probably have left Kaufman Hall in a body bag, and I have trouble seeing how anyone involved in this "incident" would have deserved that fate.
You could mention several hypothetical scenarios where students with concealed carry could save the day, but this one, sir, is not one of them.
Dave 3 years, 3 months ago
There must be some sort of mistake in this story. OU's campus is a gun-free zone; I've seen the signs.
Unless, of course, the Daily is admitting that people who would commit assault with a deadly weapon (or worse) aren't going to be stopped by rules. If that were the case, wouldn't it make sense for us to pull our heads out of the sand and be prepared to defend ourselves against criminals, instead of pretending that criminals will follow the law?
Pwyll 3 years, 3 months ago
DrFuego, the current legislation provides for faculty and a certain subset of the over 21 and already licensed permit holder population (e.g. off duty reserve police) to be able to carry a concealed weapon on campus. Are you saying that the faculty member who was threatened with deadly force should have NO potion as to effective self defense in this scenario?
rainmaker06 3 years, 3 months ago
Dr. Fuego:
Disturbances like this have happened many, many times when concealed carry permit holders are around and yet the potentially "disastrous" results you speak of don't happen.
CCL holders aren't police. They do not look for gun fights. They have gone through the legally required training that allows them to conceal a weapon for self-defense and the defense of others. For those who carry concealed weapons, drawing a pistol is the absolute last resort!
This "incident" is just an example that criminals will be criminals. Writing laws absolutely will not stop someone like Seung-Hui Cho from taking innocent lives.
Disarming law abiding citizens is irrational and paranoid (i.e.: Hoplophobic).
Zero 3 years, 3 months ago
So having fewer friends, or at least fewer who use a heavily commercialized online product such as Facebook makes you less of a person? Right.
And he attempted to throw a teacher down the stairs? Oh yeah, and remember the kid who brought a rifle to school...no, wait...that was a yoga mat people freaked out about. Or the umbrella people reported as a gun? How about the brown paper bag that was sitting on top of a trashcan someone called in was a bomb threat?
Finally, do tell how one "hacks" a 4x4, what kind of uber 1337 script kiddie stuff would one use?
It's cute to attack people who can't respond, something a mature intelligent person would spend time on.
Screwdriver 3 years, 3 months ago
I don't see why not. It's not a private profile!
mfhayes 3 years, 3 months ago
Dave, I'm considering the stigma attached to guns on a school campus.
Could this be changed over time? Sure.
Gun activity is very low on our campus considering the amount of students that attend class every day.
The city of Dover, Delaware has about the same number of residents as we do students, and they had 40 reported gun assaults in 2004.
I understand that there are responsible citizens that normally carry a weapon elsewhere, and would like to carry it on campus as well. I get that. But allowing weapons on campus would, without a doubt, increase the number of gun carriers in the area. I also get the impression that some of you would like everyone and their dog to have a gun; it's just my personal opinion that this would be a terrible, terrible idea.
EN 3 years, 3 months ago
"I'd comment on EN's maturity and intelligence (or general and obvious lack thereof) but I'm not sure I need to. His comment speaks for itself."
What. I can see why you'd question my maturity, sure - but intelligence?
Let's see...dude has no friends, dude tried to throw an OU professor down a flight of stairs, dude hacked into said professor's 4X4 account and used it to buy products prior to shipping it to the professor in an attempt to intimidate and systematically threaten an employee of the University.
Now, dude's in a jail.
La-hoo-seh-ur!
mfhayes 3 years, 3 months ago
No one died in this situation.
Here's a scenario...
Let's say five people in the vicinity are licensed to carry a concealed weapon on campus for just this sort of scenario. A guy sees the attacker, realizes this could be his big chance to be a hero, fires his weapon, possibly killing the attacker, possibly injuring innocent people. Let's say another licensed person walks in at this moment, sees the "hero" with a gun, and fires his weapon at the new attacker.
I know this is a hypothetical situation, but I really don't think this is outside of the realm of possibility. Who knows how many people could be injured or killed in such a frantic mess. Seeing a gun on campus will trigger all sorts of reactions.
I just think this is something we should consider before assuming arming the student body will solve all our problems.
I'm glad to see that everyone came out alive yesterday.
Dave 3 years, 3 months ago
Let's say five people in the vicinity are licensed to carry a concealed weapon on campus for just this sort of scenario. A guy sees the attacker, realizes this could be his big chance to be a hero, fires his weapon, possibly killing the attacker, possibly injuring innocent people. Let's say another licensed person walks in at this moment, sees the "hero" with a gun, and fires his weapon at the new attacker.
I know this is a hypothetical situation, but I really don't think this is outside of the realm of possibility. Who knows how many people could be injured or killed in such a frantic mess. Seeing a gun on campus will trigger all sorts of reactions.
Given the hundreds of thousands of people with concealed carry permits, I'm sure you can cite an example of this happening off-campus, yes? Or is this just speculation, playing unlikely probability against unlikely probability, unfounded by any evidence whatsoever?
hillelkkiller89 3 years, 3 months ago
Lets pose another hypothetical situation (they seem to be popular): Childers sees himself surrounded. Instead of fleeing he decides to open fire on the group. With no one able to defend themselves against an armed attacker Childers kills innocent people and the situation ends tragically.
The point I'm making is that when an armed attacker is confronted with unarmed people, the advantage is his. I am not suggesting that "everyone and their dog" should have a gun or that this situation would have ended without violence, but the fact is that that he could have done much worse before OUPD arrived. The laws prohibiting firearms on campus are not effective when someone decides to break them. Gun laws only make targets out of law-abiding citizens. Washington DC banned guns and their murder rate rose 55 percent.
Concealed carry on campus should be very closely regulated and monitored, but I think that it would allow the students of this university to protect themselves against an armed and violent criminal.
mouser 3 years, 3 months ago
The police have labeled it a domestic dispute, stop trying to draw parallels to virginia tech
this isn't a school shooting, this is just a sad man who didn't know how to handle his obsession with his professor (or did, Lol).
Robespierre 3 years, 3 months ago
I personally think that most gun owners don't know how to use their weapon very well at all. Even police officers who are professionally trained can loose their control in a stressful situation (it happens all the time). For that reason, I would not want to go to a school where it is allowed for students to carry guns. I am from a country where it is impossible to carry weapons around, and at least I know that I am not very likely to be shot like the students at Virginia High Tech. I say NO to guns.
GTG 3 years, 3 months ago
The outcome of this incident was fortunate. But the incident drew onlookers who could have been additional victims had he chosen to shoot. Only his choice to flee rather than shoot prevented a potential tragedy.
The campus police will in all likelihood NEVER be in a position to stop a killing spree before it begins. Mass murderers avoid law enforcement as long as possible to maximize the carnage. Cho was a perfect example of this,. He didn't wait around at the first scene to have a shootout with the cops.
OU policies against guns value the false sense of security that a sign provides. Sadly, this leaves everyone on campus who abide by laws and policies completely defensless to the predations of criminals and sociopaths.
Only these questions are relevant. Did those signs and policies stop Michael Childers from bringing a gun on campus? No. Would they have prevented him from killing his victim if he so chose? No. Would the campus police have prevented him from killing her had he chosen to do so? No.
The campus policy against guns and those little signs are a matter of control, or the illusion of it. It's a feel good measure that accomplishes absolutely nothing. Only the ability to choose one's fate matters. Anyone who believes different is sticking their head in the sand.
The fact of the matter is that Oklahoma Self Defense Act permit holders are law abiding citizens who value their freedom, safety and responsibility. You are far safer with them present and armed that you are if they're not.