A teenager was arrested for allegedly threatening to go on a killing spree at the University of Missouri.
According to The Washington Post, a series of threats directed toward black people began appearing on anonymous messaging service Yik Yak on Tuesday.
Another post reportedly said,
Some of you are alright. Don't go to campus tomorrow.
The Washington Post reports a third post continued the threat, saying,
We're waiting for you at the parking lots. We will kill you.
At a little before 2 am today, 19-year-old Hunter M. Park of Rolla, Missouri was arrested and taken to jail in Columbia, Missouri.
He was booked on a preliminary charge for suspicion of making a terrorist threat and is being held on a $4,500 bond, Daily Mail reports.
The Daily Beast quotes a statement released by campus police. It read,
Park was contacted in Rolla, Missouri, by the University of Missouri Police and transported to the University of Missouri Police Department in Columbia where he was arrested and processed.
Park is not a student at the University of Missouri but is enrolled at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, part of the University of Missouri system.
Police found no weapons in his possession, and they have yet to formally charge the suspect.
Concerned students asked for classes to be canceled today, Daily Mail reports, and many left campus after learning of the threats.
Classes resumed as scheduled, but attendance rates were reportedly very low.
Typically bustling parts of the @Mizzou campus are very empty right now. #Mizzou pic.twitter.com/UjHDgGNy23 — Jill Ornitz (@Jill_Ornitz) November 11, 2015
The school had extra officers on patrol last night, and university police collaborated with state and local authorities to make sure the campus was not in danger, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Several other reports of possible threats were also investigated.
The messages came just one day after the resignation of Mizzou president Tim Wolfe, who was accused of failing to act in response to numerous racial attacks on campus.
Much of the school's football team threatened to not show up to any future games until Wolfe resigned, and some professors even walked out of class to join others protesting the former president.
The chancellor of the University of Missouri's Columbia campus, R. Bowen Loftin, also stepped down shortly after Wolfe's resignation.
Citations: Man 19 arrested for allegedly threatening to shoot every black person I see at University of Missouri following racial tensions on campus (Daily Mail), University of Missouri police arrest suspect in social media death threats (The Washington Post), University of Missouri police ID suspect in online death threats (Chicago Tribune)
