Arrests Made in Racially Charged Threats to Univ. of Chicago and Western Washington Univ.
A college student has been charged for making an online threat to kill 16 white people at the University of Chicago for each shot that was fired at Laquan McDonald. The 17-year-old was shot and killed by former Officer Jason Van Dyke in 2014.
Jabari Dean, a 21-year-old African-American student at the University of Illinois, uploaded a video to WorldStarHipHop.com and said that he would be carrying out his violent plan to "rid the world of the white devils," Monday (Nov. 30) morning. The video was deleted immediately. But the University of Chicago at Hyde Park shut down its campus for the entire day, reopening Tuesday.
"I will execute approximately 16 white male students and or staff, which is the same number of time (sic) Mcdonald (sic) was killed. I then will die killing any number of white policemen that I can in the process," Dean said in the video, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Dean was released to custody with his mother Tuesday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tobara Richardson said that Dean was not a threat after investigators found that he did not have the equipment to carry out the massive shooting that he described.
Similarly, at Western Washington University, a student has been arrested for making threats online to Black students, including the student body president, who is African-American, the Star Tribune reports. The student has been suspended from the campus until a criminal investigation has concluded. The racist comments were made to the social platform Yik Yak. Authorities are seeking others connected to the threats.
The university re-opened yesterday after being shut down last Tuesday because of threats made to students of color amid ongoing conversations on campus to change the school's Vikings mascot. Some students feel that it is a racist symbol.
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(Photo: Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune via AP)
