Online Threat Leaves Philadelphia Universities in Fear

STORY BY  Dalton Balthaser

Philadelphia, PA- The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are warning Philadelphia universities about a non-specific threat of violence on Monday.

The threat was posted on 4chan, a message board last Friday, October 2 where all comments and people are anonymous. The threat said, “On October 5, at 1:00 p.m. Central time, a fellow robot will take up arms at a university near Philadelphia.”

The threat came just a day after a shooting took place at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, where the gunman killed nine and wounded nine. The anonymous post praised the shooters work in Oregon.

Students at Temple University as well as the other neighboring universities are staying alert during this time. Charles J. Leone Executive Director of Campus Safety Services at Temple said in a university-wide email that Temple Police would be providing more officers to watch over campus on Monday.

Sabrina Silva, a junior broadcast journalism major at Temple, didn’t even attend school today because her parents told her to stay home. She said that if she had been at school Monday, she would have been paranoid.

“My parents wouldn’t let me leave my house today after hearing about the threat on the news and how it was related to the shooting in Oregon,” Silva said. “It is scary to think that for the students that are walking on campus right now wondering when this might happen.”

Leone said in the email that Temple Police would continue to interact with local and federal authorities as well as the colleagues at the other local universities. He encourages anyone who sees anything suspicious to report it to the proper authorities immediately.

“If I was at school right now I would be scared for my life,” Silva said. “My life would be in someone else’s hands and I wouldn’t like that. I would be constantly looking over my shoulder.”