Texas Police: Mohamed ‘Clock’ Suspected As Hoax Bomb

In the face of criticism over how his department handled the call to investigate 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed’s “homemade clock,” Irving, Texas, police Chief Larry Boyd insisted on Friday that they handled the situation professionally, quickly, and properly.

“What they were investigating was whether he brought a device to school with the intention of creating alarm,” Chief Boyd said.

It is reported that the Muslim teenager “created” a clock at home and took it to school to show it off to his engineering teacher. After the teacher warned the boy not to wave it around in school, the “clock” began making noises as Mohamed sat in a math class. The teacher asked to see what the commotion was and became worried after another student proclaimed that the device looked like a bomb.

In short order, the teen was taken to the principal’s office, and police were called to MacArthur High School to determine what the device was and if it was a real threat or a deliberate alarm-creating hoax. Ahmed Mohamed was handcuffed while police investigated the device.

After news leaked that the 14-year-old was handcuffed and detained for a short time while the device was studied, liberals on social media made the incident into a cause célèbre. Before long, the incident had reached all the way to the White House where President Obama announced that he was inviting the teen to Washington.

Many characterized the incident as some sort of proof of “anti-Muslim sentiment” that is purported to run rampant in the U.S., but Chief Boyd denies that there was any discrimination perpetrated by his department.

As the incident gets closer scrutiny, though, many are beginning to wonder if the incident is a setup because the teen’s father is a Muslim activist who has been trying to make a name for himself in the grievance industry.

Another detractor of the incident is an engineer who looked at the photos of the device and reported that Ahmed Mohamed’s device was no “invented clock” but just an old clock that was disassembled and suspiciously stuffed into a metal pencil case.

The case also sparked the ire of conservative 13-year-old C.J. Pearson who, in a viral video, criticized President Obama for falling all over himself to invite Mohamed to the White House while at the same time ignoring the death of Kate Steinle and a growing list of murdered police officers, none of whose family members have been invited to the White House.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston, or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.