Amid Racial Unrest, Missouri Students Arrested for Threats

The threats, made by two 19-year-old students, are not believed to be related.

Two college students in Missouri were arrested Nov. 11 for posting online threats a day after the resignations of the University of Missouri president and chancellor.

Hunter Michael Park, a 19-year-old student at UM Science and Technology in Rolla, was arrested by UM police for allegedly posting “I’m going to stand my ground tomorrow and shoot every black person I see” on the social media app Yik Yak.

Park was arrested in a residence hall on campus without any weapons on him. Park was charged with making a terrorist threat.

Later in the day, another student was arrested in a residence hall on the campus of Northwest Missouri State University for allegedly making terrorist threats after university police received a report about another threat on Yik Yak, according to ABC News.

The 19-year-old student in that case has not been publicly identified. It’s unclear if those threats were racially charged.

The arrests come in the wake of an ongoing controversy over racism at UM and in the state. On Nov. 10, University of Missouri President Tim Wolfe and Chancellor R. Brown Loftin resigned after being criticized for not responding to reports of racism on campus. Loftin will transition into a new role on campus in January.

The resignations followed weeks of protests that started when the president of the Missouri Student’s Association posted on Facebook that he’d been repeatedly racially abused by a man on campus in a pickup truck. Students protested by camping out on campus, blocking the UM president’s car during the homecoming parade and in one case going on a hunger strike until President Wolfe resigned. Thirty members of the UM football team also refused to practice or play until Wolfe’s resignation.

There were also reports Nov. 11 that members of the KKK were on campus and that the UM Black Culture Center was locked down, but university police have since confirmed there is no immediate threat.

The UM Police Department had increased security on campus following the social media threats. The department consists of 38 commissioned officers, eight security officers, five dispatchers and an administrative staff.

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About the Author

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Zach Winn is a journalist living in the Boston area. He was previously a reporter for Wicked Local and graduated from Keene State College in 2014, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in journalism and minoring in political science.

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