Missouri Police Arrest White Man Accused of Threatening Black Mizzou Students

A White 19-year-old man is in police custody for reportedly making threats against Black students at the University of Missouri amid the recent protests that have erupted on the campus.

Police arrested 19-year-old Hunter Park, who is not a student at the university, early this morning. Yesterday afternoon, students had reported an anonymous user on the social media app Yik Yak who was threatening to “shoot every Black person I see.” The threats prompted many Black students to leave campus for the night and university officials to increase security.

“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 university said in a statement this morning.

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However, #ConcernedStudent1950, the activist group that on campus in September named for the first year that the university was integrated, said that many faculty members have ignored Black students’ concerns. 

On Tuesday night, graduate student Jonathan Butler, who went on a hunger strike last week calling for the resignation of the university’s president, posted an exchange on Twitter reportedly between a professor and a student. The student expressed that she didn’t feel safe coming on campus, and the professor responded by saying that “there will be an exam administered in our class.”

Park is being held on $4,500 bond. He is currently a sophomore at Missouri University of Science and Technology, which is two hours south of the University of Missouri.