CHICAGO — Federal authorities say an online threat against white males that led the University of Chicago to cancel classes Monday appears to have been motivated by the police shooting of a black teenager.
Jabari R. Dean, 21, of Chicago, threatened to kill 16 white male students or staff members at the school on Chicago’s South Side, according to a criminal complaint.
Dean, who is black, was arrested Monday morning and is charged with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.
The threat was posted Saturday, 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, and his bail was set for $1.5 million Monday. 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 University of Chicago statement urged faculty, students and non-essential staffers to stay away from the Hyde Park campus through midnight Monday and told students in college housing to stay indoors.
