Minnesota college student charged in phoney bomb threats

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A Minnesota college student accused of calling in phoney bomb threats targeting buildings where he was supposed to be attending class has been charged in federal court.

Ray Persaud, of Blaine, is accused of making three separate bomb threats against the University of St. Thomas this year, resulting in the evacuation of buildings and in one case the shutdown of the entire St. Paul campus.

The U.S. attorney’s office says the 20-year-old man was charged Monday with using an instrumentality of interstate commerce to make a threat to kill, injure, or intimidate any individual, and to damage or destroy any building, by means of fire and explosive.

Court documents don’t list an attorney for Persaud. The school says on its website that he’s a third-year undergraduate student.