Feds Arrest Student in Univ. of Chicago Shooting Threat

30 Nov, 2015

Federal authorities said an online threat that led the University of Chicago to cancel classes Monday targeted whites and was motivated by the police shooting of a black teenager, video of which was released last week and led to protests.

Jabari R. Dean, 21, of Chicago, threatened to kill 16 white male students or staff at the school on Chicago’s South Side, according to the criminal complaint.

Dean, who is black, was arrested Monday morning. He did not enter a plea later in the day on a charge of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce in court.

The threat was posted Saturday, just days after the city released a video of Officer Jason Van Dyke, who is white, shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who was black, 16 times. Van Dyke is charged with first-degree murder. His bond was set for $1.5 million earlier Monday, and hours later, he paid the $150,000 needed and was released.

Authorities said Dean posted online from a phone that he would “execute approximately … 16 white male students and or staff, which is the same number of time (sic) McDonald was killed” and “will die killing any number of white policemen that I can in the process.”

The criminal complaint said someone tipped the FBI Sunday to a threat that was posted on a social media website. The FBI was unable to find the threat online, and was provided a screenshot by the person who reported the threat.

That led them to Dean, who admitted to FBI agents that he posted the threat and took it down shortly after posting it, the complaint said. Despite the threat mentioning three guns, a prosecutor told Monday’s hearing that Dean did not appear to pose a threat. The complaint did not say whether Dean possessed any weapons.

Dean is a first-year undergraduate student in electrical engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago, UIC spokeswoman Sherri McGinnis Gonzalez. He wore a red sweat shirt emblazoned with the name of that school in court.

Jabari’s lawyer declined comment Monday. A judge ordered Dean be held until Tuesday’s bond hearing, when prosecutors will likely agree to let him be released to his mother.

The University of Chicago, where President Barack Obama taught law, first alerted students and staff Sunday night about a threat that mentioned the quad, a popular gathering place, and 10 a.m. Monday. The school urged faculty, students and non-essential staff to stay away from the Hyde Park campus through midnight Monday and told students in college housing to stay indoors.

The cancellations of classes and activities affected more than 30,000 people, though the University of Chicago Medical Center was open to patients.

The normally bustling campus was almost desolate Monday morning as Chicago Police Department and campus security vehicles patrolled streets. Security staff guarded campus walkways, including the quad mentioned in the threat. The time mentioned in the threat came and went without incident.

Classes will resume Tuesday after what university President Robert Zimmer said was a “challenging day.”

AP 

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