Orthodox Seminarian With Weapons Arrested At Airport

A seminarian from a Pennsylvania Orthodox seminary was arrested by Tampa International Airport security on Saturday for trying to pass a checkpoint with explosives and ammunition.

Officials at the airport say 21-year-old Roman Regman, a Romanian native living with his mother in Florida, was carrying five homemade explosive devices, bomb-making materials, two hand grenades, a 9mm pistol, about 180 rounds of ammunition, and six military-knives.

Regman was traveling to Wilkes Barre-Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he was to start his third year of study for the priesthood at St. Tikhon’s Seminary in South Canaan, near Scranton.

Regman told television reporters that he committed no crime. “The things I had were not real … they’re used weapons. They were no good. The grenades are dead,” he said from jail, where he was being held without bail. But the police bomb squad director said Regman could have used the weapons to hijack the plane or commit some other crime.

Regman commonly wore fatigues and camouflage clothing during his personal time at the seminary, said Archbishop Herman, rector of St. Tikhon’s and archbishop of Philadelphia for the Orthodox Church in America. He said Regman’s father was an army colonel in Romania.