Police have arrested a suspect who made a threat Oct. 11 to shoot up Penn State’s HUB-Robeson Center on Monday, Oct. 13. The HUB is the center of university life on the campus in in University Park, Penn.
University Police made the arrest just hours after alerting the community to the potential danger via an emergency alert system. The 20-year-old suspect has been charged with one count of terroristic threats and is expected to be arraigned today, Oct. 13. The suspect has admitted to making the Penn State shooting threat via Yik Yak. Yik Yak is a social media platform that allows users to post anonymous messages that can only be seen by others within a 1.5 mile radius.
Students who saw the threat alerted University Police, and although the message disappeared within minutes, some students managed to capture a screen grab. Police worked with Yik Yak officials to confirm the mobile device used to post the threat and the location of the user.
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The suspect is a student who lives off-campus. He told police the message which said he’d bring rifles to the student union building and “kill everyone in Penn State main” was a prank.
“Alarming an entire community is not considered a joke. It’s considered a terroristic threat in this case and this individual will be held accountable,” said Police Chief Tyrone Parham.
The suspect’s name won’t been released until he has been arraigned.