Threat at Univ. of Chicago Connected to Fatal Shooting of Laquan McDonald: ‘I Will Execute Approximately 16 White Male Students…’

The suspect accused of threatening the University of Chicago reportedly promised to shoot "at least" 16 white males in retaliation for Laquan McDonald — a black man who was fatally shot 16 times by a white police officer last year.

According to a police report obtained by the Chicago Tribune, the suspect, a student at nearby University of Illinois at Chicago, posted the threat anonymously online. It was seen by a New York resident who reported it to law enforcement officials. After receiving a warning from the FBI, the University of Chicago shuttered its campus on Monday, confining students to their dorm rooms and encouraging all nonemergency faculty and staff to stay away.

Image via Facebook/The University of Chicago

The comment, posted with a Chicago Bulls logo and the initials "JRD" read:

"This is my only warning. At 10AM 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 times McDonald was killed. 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 to do the same.

The Chicago Tribune reported that the comment was posted on the website www.worldstarhiphop.com on a video clip of the 1995 film "Panther." The clip depicted a group of black people wielding weapons while "racist police officers" hit them, according to the police report obtained by the Tribune.

FBI counterterrorism officials worked with officials at the private university and determined that the threat was credible which resulted in the school's Hyde Park campus closing on Monday. 

Later Monday afternoon, one UIC student living off-campus was arrested, according to a statement from the school. No reported threats were made toward the UIC campus but the school increased its campus police presence on Monday as an additional precaution.

"I’m very grateful for the precautionary measures the university took in conjunction with law enforcement and that those on campus seemed to keep calm throughout the day," Max Freedman, a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Chicago, told TheBlaze Monday afternoon.

Freedman reported seeing law enforcement officials on campus from his window but said that wasn't necessarily an unusual sight for the Chicago campus.

A spokesperson for the Chicago Police Department declined to speak to media when reached by TheBlaze Monday afternoon.

Officer Jason Van Dyke has been charged with first-degree murder after he shot McDonald, 17, more than a dozen times in 2014. McDonald was carrying a knife during the time of the altercation and a dashcam video shows him continuing to walk in the middle of the street as he ignored police officers' commands, but officials determined that was not enough to warrant the shooting.

A University of Chicago spokesperson said the school was not ready to comment at this time further than what is already on the school's website.

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