Police charged a 17-year-old runaway with murder on Friday after connecting him to the on-campus slaying of University of Texas student Haruka Weiser.
Officers arrested Meechaiel Khalil Criner Thursday at an emergency shelter for homeless youth after he was identified as a suspect in Weiser's death.
Criner’s arrest helped lift a cloud of fear that had descended after the discovery of Weiser’s body near the heart of campus Tuesday — the first homicide on the main campus in nearly 50 years. But law enforcement officers from various agencies maintained a heavy presence at UT, even as students and faculty moved from fear and shock to grief.
“Yes we feel better that the suspect is in custody, but we continue to grieve,” UT Police Chief David Carter said Friday. “We really believe we have a safe campus, but it requires the community to step up as well.”
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said investigators had yet to determine a motive in the killing.
Criner was listed as a runaway with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. He has had a history in foster care and Child Protective Services has conservatorship over Criner. He was reported as a runaway to Killeen police on March 24, a Killeen police spokeswoman said.
Criner's grandmother, Mary Wadley, told the Shreveport, La., news station KSLA Friday that Criner had a history of psychological problems. Wadley said Criner ran away in August.
“If you made him mad, he’d snap,” she told the news station. “His temper would snap real fast.”
In an interview for his Texarkana high school paper, the Tiger Times, Criner said his mother had a drinking problem and said he and his siblings were removed from her home and placed into foster care at a young age. Criner told the Tiger Times he was bullied often for his thick accent and was abused while in foster care.
“It was a really harsh time in my life,” Criner told the publication. “People can be mean and hateful.”
Police said they connected Criner to Weiser’s death shortly after they released surveillance footage Thursday of a suspect. The key tip came from firefighters at Austin Fire Department Station 3. Firefighters at the campus-area station said they encountered a teenager Monday who resembled the suspect in the video, right down to the clothing and the bicycle, Criner’s arrest affidavit said.
The firefighters found Criner at the scene of a fire that was called in at 8:21 a.m. Monday in an abandoned building just north of campus. Criner, who told firefighters he was homeless, was burning various items, the affidavit said. After extinguishing the fire, firefighters told Criner they would keep his bicycle while authorities took him to a Lifeworks shelter.
After receiving the tip, investigators arrested Criner at the shelter and obtained a warrant for his belongings.
By Friday afternoon, Criner had been charged with murder. Bail was set at $1 million, jail records showed.
Some of the items Criner was burning were likely Weiser’s possessions, the affidavit said. They included a shoe and college coursework, the affidavit said. At the shelter, police found a laptop affixed with a Portland, Ore., sticker, which Weiser’s parents said was on her laptop, the affidavit said.
Weiser was last heard from by a friend she called after she finished a class at the Winship Drama Building at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday.
Around that time, surveillance footage from UT cameras record a male believed to be Criner near the Liberal Arts Building, across from Winship on 23rd Street. Video also captures a woman, believed to be Weiser, walk past him. He watched her and then put down the kick stand of his bike, the affidavit said.
He reached into the back of his pants, pulled out a “shiny rigid object,” the affidavit said, and followed Weiser behind the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center, which is adjacent to the west bank of Waller Creek.
Criner is not seen on video footage again until about two hours later — 11:47 p.m. — walking east on 23rd Street with a slight limp, the affidavit said. The footage also showed him carrying a small duffel bag that he did not have when he was first caught on video, the affidavit said.
Weiser was reported missing the next morning; police found her body Tuesday in Waller Creek.
UT President Gregory Fenves said that if Weiser’s death is to have any meaning, it should be for the UT community to examine how to make the campus a safer place. Patrols have been increased temporarily and Fenves has directed UT officers to become more involved with student volunteer programs that address student safety.
Fenves asked the UT community to support Weiser’s family members, who he said have shown tremendous strength in the face of a tragedy. Through the university president, the family issued a statement thanking the various law enforcement agencies involved in homicide investigation.
“We remain steadfast in our desire to honor Haruka’s memory through kindness and love, not violence,” the family said. “To the police officers, the UT community and all who have been impacted by this, we just ask that you hug your children, hug your parents TWICE, one from you and one from us.”
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