IU student found with bomb chemicals had drug, mental health issues, records say
Ryder Pickens was a “happy-go-lucky guy,” his roommates told police, but the 20-year-old Indiana University student changed a few months ago.
He had become a “recluse,” one of his friends said. He began talking about robots and drones taking over the world and started wearing sunglasses at night. He had been “suicidal” and tried to hang himself.
Pickens is now in jail, charged with attempted manufacture of an explosive device. The Class C felony is punishable by up to eight years in prison.
A newly released probable cause affidavit paints a bizarre picture of the IU student and what police found inside his apartment in the 400 block of East Varsity Lane near the Bloomington campus.
Pickens was arrested last week after police found he was in possession of laboratory equipment and an array of chemicals they believed can be used to make an explosive device. Authorities had seized containers of chemicals, such as nitric acid, ferric chloride, sodium nitrate, black iron oxide, hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid and potassium chlorate. They also found that Pickens had been browsing websites on how to make explosives, according to court documents.
Detective Randy Gehlhausen of the Bloomington Police Department described a “pretty extensive lab” equipped with beakers, microscopes, hazmat suits, gas masks and protective gears. There were German flags hanging on the wall and an arm band associated with a hate group. In Pickens’ bathroom, police found what looked like a list of commandments, one of which refers to the “art of deception,” court documents say.
When one of his roommates asked Pickens about the Web searches in his computer, Pickens shut the system down and said, “Nothing I’m doing is illegal,” documents say.
“So based on our findings down there, things just didn’t look right,” Gehlhausen said in court documents.
In a brief statement to police, Pickens admitted being suicidal in the past but said he is not anymore. He also said that he simply became interested in chemistry and was just randomly browsing websites, documents say.
Police took Pickens to IU Health Bloomington Hospital for a mental health detention, said Jeffrey Kehr, a deputy prosecutor with the Monroe County prosecutor’s office. He stayed there for nearly a week before his arrest Wednesday.
One of Pickens’ friends told police that his behavior changed sometime last fall, when Pickens began taking LSD, documents say. Before, the friend said, Pickens was a “happy-go-lucky guy.” Since, he has “not been right,” the friend said, according to documents.
Last November, Pickens was arrested in Indianapolis after he allegedly kneed an emergency medical services crewmember in the mouth while being transferred to IU Health Methodist Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, according to a probable cause affidavit. Pickens, who was previously at another hospital for an LSD overdose, tried to escape by trying to jump out of the ambulance and getting into the cab side of the vehicle, documents say. The assault charge is pending in Marion Superior Court.
Pickens’ motive for buying the chemicals found in his apartment remains unknown. An FBI bomb expert consulted by Bloomington police said mixing potassium chlorate with an acid can be extremely explosive, documents say.
A bail review hearing is scheduled for Wednesday and a pretrial hearing for March 27 in Monroe Circuit Court. Pickens is being held on a $1 million surety bond and has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Pickens graduated from Danville High School and was a kicker for the school’s football team. His family has declined to speak with The Indianapolis Star.
Contact Star reporter Kristine Guerra at (317) 444-6209. Follow her on Twitter: @kristine_guerra