Federal officials charged a University of Illinois at Chicago engineering student with making the threat that shut down the University of Chicago on Monday, saying his online post threatening to kill U. of C. students and staff was in retaliation for the shooting of Laquan McDonald.
Jabari R. Dean, 21, was charged with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.
Dean, who appeared in federal court Monday afternoon wearing a red UIC hoodie and blue jeans, will be held in custody until Tuesday, when he will be released to the custody of his mother.
The FBI does not consider Dean a threat and he did not have the resources to carry out the threat, federal prosecutors said in court.
If convicted, Dean, who lives with his mother, faces a maximum of five years in prison.
After tracking down Dean through the service provider, agents confronted him and, they said, he acknowledged posting the threat from his phone. The threat was on the website www.worldstarhiphop.com, according to authorities.
The poster threatened to shoot and kill students, staff and police on the campus at 10 a.m. Monday and then kill himself, citing the fatal shooting last year of 17-year-old McDonald by a Chicago police officer. The officer, who shot McDonald 16 times, was charged last week with first-degree murder.
"This is my only warning. At 10 a.m. on Monday morning, I'm going to the campus quad of the University of Chicago. I will be armed with an M-4 carbine and two desert eagles, all fully loaded. I will execute approximately 16 white male students and or staff, which is the same number of time McDonald was killed," wrote the commenter, who posted with the initials "JRD" and a Chicago Bulls logo, according to court records. "I will then die killing any number of white policeman in the process. This is not a joke. I am to do my part and rid the world of white devils. I expect you do the same."
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Read the full complaint below
