DALLAS —**UPDATE** No charges against Muslim teen after clock mistaken for bomb
A Muslim teenager was arrested and placed in handcuffs after bringing in his home-made clock into school.
Teachers claimed the invention looked like a bomb.
Ahmed Mohamed, 14, created the device and brought it into his school to show his engineering teacher.
He told the Dallas Morning News that he built the clock on Sunday in his bedroom in about 20 minutes, using a circuit board, a digital display and several wires. He enclosed the device into a pencil case with a tiger hologram on the front.
Ahmed said he first showed his invention to his engineering teacher, who gave him some advice.
‘He was like, “That’s really nice. I would advise you not to show that to other teachers.”‘
Ahmed said the principal claimed his clock looked like a ‘movie bomb’.
Police arrested Ahmed and took him to juvenile detention.
Police spokesman James McLellan said: ‘We have no information that he claimed it was a bomb. He kept maintaining it was a clock, but there was no broader explanation.
‘It could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or under a car. The concern was, what was this thing built for? Do we take him into custody?’
