Two Molotov cocktail-type bombs—bottles containing a flammable liquid with a lighted rag inserted into the bottle opening—were thrown into the fourth floor office of Philip Scheurer, dean of student activities, in the early morning of January 16, 1980. One broke on the windowsill, and the other landed on the floor. The bombs were apparently thrown from a third-floor balcony, breaking a window about 25 feet above in the dean’s office. The flames were self-extinguished.
Rossi Wayne Turner, junior in liberal arts, was arrested for the bombing and signed a confession saying that his reason for the bombing was retaliation. Turner was one of three student members of the Afro-American Student Liberation Force arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for disrupting the October 20, 1978, board of trustees meeting during efforts to convince the board to divest itself of stock holdings in South Africa. UT Police had the fingerprints of the students charged in that 1978 event and matched Turner’s prints to those on the unexploded wine bottle. Turner pled guilty to the charge and was sentenced by Criminal Court Judge Richard Ford to 5–10 years in prison.