The Federal Bureau of Investigation has shared evidence indicating that former UChicago student Aram Brunson was making a bomb in his Woodlawn dorm room when he caused a fire on January 2, 2023.

Brunson wanted to take militant action for Armenian extremist purposes and was in the process of constructing a black powder explosive device when he accidentally set the device off in his Yovovich House dorm, causing an explosion and leading to an evacuation.

The FBI filed a criminal complaint against Brunson on August 27, 2024, charging him with making false statements to federal officials and trying to conceal “by trick, scheme, or device” the “material fact” that he was engaged in bomb-making activity. The complaint alleges he originally told UChicago Police the fire was from a hot plate in his room, then told the FBI he had been trying to make a flare to imitate an internet prank.

In addition to the explosion he set off in Woodlawn that caused the fire, Brunson is also charged with making false statements to officials at Boston’s Logan Airport on August 20, 2023, after his luggage set off an alarm indicating the presence of the substance HMTD, a highly explosive organic compound used in bomb-making. Brunson had returned home to Newton, Massachusetts after setting off the January explosion in Woodlawn and was at Logan Airport traveling to Yerevan, Armenia.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Massachusetts, “each of the charges provide for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.” The press release states that Brunson is now believed to be attending the American University of Armenia in Yerevan.

At the time Brunson caused the January 2023 fire in Woodlawn, students had been trailing back from winter break, lugging suitcases to their dorm rooms. Classes were due to start the next day.

Owen Sussman ’26, then a Yovovich resident, was sleeping at the time of the incident.

“There was this pounding at my door. I woke up and there were these firemen in full outfits, gas masks on, like, you need to get out right now,” Sussman said. “It was very weird, very intense.”

Sussman and his housemates residing on the sixth floor of Yovovich House, which is located within Woodlawn’s East Commons, were asked to evacuate their room and not return until several hours later. The Chicago Fire Department advised all other Woodlawn residents to “stay in place” before determining there was no building-wide threat.

The next day, Associate Vice President for Safety & Security Eric Heath and former Dean of Students in the University Michele Rasmussen sent an email to Woodlawn residents. The email read that “a University of Chicago student was arrested by the Chicago Police Department in relation to this incident” and that “the fire remains under active investigation.” The email did not share additional information.

“We take the safety of our students extremely seriously. The individual has not been enrolled at the University or permitted in a residence hall since the incident [in January 2023],” a University spokesperson wrote in a statement to the Maroon after the FBI complaint was made. “The University worked closely with law enforcement to ensure a thorough investigation…. We could not share additional details [at the time] as it was an active investigation being led by the Chicago Police Department and Federal authorities.”

The University spokesperson failed to confirm whether Brunson was expelled after the incident.