LOGAN — A 20-year-old Utah State University student has been arrested for allegedly causing the mass evacuation of students in the Mountain View Tower Thursday night. Joshua Peter Jager was booked into the Cache County Jail after reportedly mixing chemicals in his dorm room and creating a fog of hydrochloric acid.
According to the arrest affidavit, USU police officers were originally called to a fire alarm at the dormitory on Jan. 13. The source or the alarm was traced to Jager’s room, where he reportedly claimed he was boiling water and vinegar to make potatoes.
Officers reported that when they entered the room, they discovered a large amount of chemicals, including silver nitrate and potassium carbonate. They also found various machinery, tools and large quantities of batteries.
Police suspected Jager was making drugs or explosives, which he later denied. Bomb technicians were called to the scene and confiscated several of the chemicals, later deeming the room was safe.
Thursday morning, Jager was taken to the USU Police Department and questioned by officers and agents with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. He reportedly claimed that he received the chemicals years earlier and was not using them to create any sort of explosive or drug, according to jail booking paperwork.
Jager claimed he had no ties to any terroristic organization and had made a mistake bringing the chemicals to his dorm. He was warned by police and agents to immediately stop using them in his room.
Later that night around 7:40 p.m. emergency crews responded to another fire alarm at the same dorm. As they entered the first floor, Jager met them and admitted to setting the alarm off again.
The suspect told police that he had found more chemicals and was attempting to “neutralize” them. This caused a large amount of gas to accumulate, producing a strong chemical smell throughout the first floor of the tower, the probable cause statement detailed.
Police noted that the fire alarm prompted a mass evacuation of all seven floors of the dormitory. Multiple emergency crews were paged to the incident, including the Logan Fire Department, USU Police, Logan HAZMAT, USU Housing and other agencies.
USU spokesperson Amanda DeRito said, “USU Housing found spaces in other USU buildings and on an Aggie Shuttle bus to keep student residents out of the elements while they waited to determine if decontamination was needed or to be let back into their room around midnight.”
No other students needed to be decontaminated, or were reported to have been injured.
USU police report an initial estimate of clean up and restoration costs was approximately $10,000 to $20,000, not including the labor and overtime costs of emergency crew and staff. The investigation is ongoing.
Jager was arraigned during a virtual hearing Friday in Logan’s 1st District Court, appearing by web conference from jail. He was charged with suspicion of causing a catastrophe, a class A misdemeanor; and disorderly conduct, a class C misdemeanor.
Judge Spencer Walsh assigned Jager a public defender and set bail at $2,500. He also prohibited him from possessing any chemicals or starting any fires, and contacting the USU Police Department, if released on bail.
Jager was ordered to appear again in court Jan. 27. He could face more than one year in jail, if convicted.
Individuals arrested and charged in complaints are presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.