MU Police Apprehend Social Media Suspect

Police say Park, who is not a student at the university, is responsible for messages posted online using the gossip app Yik Yak, which threatened to murder black students en masse.

In a statement released Tuesday she said she regrets her actions a day earlier, when she was captured in a video challenging student Mark Schierbecker and calling for “muscle” to help remove the photographer from the protest area. It’s unclear which threat or threats Park is accused of making.

Another post contained a veiled threat. “Don’t go to campus tomorrow”, read another. The message appeared to mimic another post on the website 4chan – a forum where racism and misogyny are commonplace – preceding the shooting rampage at an OR community college in October.

“Safety is the university’s top priority and we are working hard to assure that the campus remains safe while information is obtained and confirmed”, the statement added. As worries began to percolate, the university tweeted, “There is no immediate threat to campus”.

The University of Missouri’s undergraduate student government contacted administration officials asking for classes to be canceled on Wednesday.

“I can tell there’s a different aura, a different mood”, said Christina Oyelola, a junior whose parents are from Nigeria but raised her here in town.

On other US campuses, peaceful marches or walkouts have been held this week, or are planned, over what a few demonstrators see as soft handling of reports of racial abuse on campuses.

In September, Head – the student body president – vented on Facebook about bigotry and anti-homosexual and anti-transgender attitudes after people riding in the back of a pickup truck screamed racial slurs at him.

The pressure worked. Wolfe resigned Monday, followed hours later by Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin. For instance, there was a rumor, since debunked by police, that KKK were targeting the campus.

The threats come at a turbulent time for the university.

“It’s really disheartening and proves the point of why these protests and boycotts were necessary”, Rodriguez said.

The campus has been embroiled in racial tensions of late after a group of faculty and students – including black members of the school’s football team – demanded the resignation of the university’s president over the way he handled racial issues on campus. Other teachers had given students the option of not attending classes if they felt unsafe. The university has promised changes.

Chuck Henson, a black law professor and associate dean, was appointed Tuesday as the university’s first-ever interim vice chancellor for inclusion, diversity and equity. “We have watched faculty, many of whom have great expertise in social justice, act with extraordinary compassion to our students, and we have benefited greatly from our incredible staff who are dedicated to making Mizzou the best it can be”.