Police made an arrest in relation to the threat of gun violence against the University of Chicago (UC), and linked the details of the threat to the Laquan McDonald shooting.
According to The Chicago Sun-Times, police arrested a 21-year-old University of Illinois - Chicago (UIC) student named Jabari R. Dean. He faces a charge of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce in federal court.
Dean reportedly acknowledged to police officers he authored an anonymous online threat in which he said he wanted to shoot "16 white male students and or staff," The Sun-Times learned. Dean was going to show up at the UC quad at 10 a.m. and fire at any white police officers who arrived on the scene.
The Chicago Tribune reported the threat appeared in the comment section of a video clip from the 1995 film "Panther" appearing on WoldStarHipHop.com. Someone from New York reportedly noticed the threat and contacted the FBI.
UC President Robert Zimmer decided to close the campus on Monday while the FBI investigated the threat. In its own statement, UIC acknowledged it was cooperating the investigation and noted there have been no threats against its campus.
Dean's threat of shooting 16 people correlated to the amount times McDonald, 17, was shot by a Chicago police officer named Jason Van Dyke. The shooting and the demonstrations that followed became headline news when the city released the footage from the police cruiser showing the incident.
Van Dyke faces a charge of first-degree murder and is being held on $1.5 million bail, USA Today reported.
Police waited at the quad Monday morning in case the author of the threat followed through, but nothing happened, The Sun-Times reported. Zimmer's decision to cancel all classes and activities was questioned by some, but supported by others.
A student who wished to remain anonymous told the newspaper she supported the closure. Grace Tsiang, a UC economics professor, said she may have acted differently, but understood Zimmer's reasoning.
