By Corinne Murdock |
The University of Arizona (UArizona) will not reveal the identity of the student who threatened to shoot up the James E. College of Law campus over “transphobes” this past spring semester.
Police records reflect that the threats were made in the days leading up to April 10th, prompting concerns that lasted throughout the month and moved the law school to hold its last week of classes and finals remotely.
UArizona told AZ Free News that they redacted the student’s name from official records due to privacy and confidentiality issues.
According to records first obtained by 13 News, the University of Arizona Police Department (UAPD) reported finding “threatening messages referencing killing people at UA campus” on the student’s phone. They found a search history that included questions around shooting accuracy, mass shootings, the Michigan State shooting, and Tucson shooting ranges. In an Instagram post included within police records, the student said they would rather kill a transphobe than be killed.
“All the gay people I know in the US are afraid for their life every day,” read the post. “I pack a loaded 9mm around with me because I’d rather kill a transphobe than get killed. But even then, I’d still probably die in a gunfight.”
Also according to police records, a friend reported to police that the student expressed an intent to shoot people. A friend also reported that the student would carry a gun onto campus property, despite knowing that it violated university policy.
“[The student] was talking oddly and that within the odd speech, [the student] stated, ‘I’m gonna shoot people’ as well as ‘they’re gonna come to shoot me’ and ‘I’m gonna shoot them before they shoot me,’” said the report. “[The student] has a gun and takes it to the university even though [the student] knows [they’re] not supposed to but uses it for protection in case [they’re] attacked.”
These threats emerged just weeks after the Christian elementary school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee. The shooter — 28-year-old Aiden Hale, formerly known as Audrey Hale — was a woman who identified as a transgender man and a former student of the school. Three children and three adults were murdered by Hale before police stopped her.
Police records reflected that the UArizona student was hospitalized for mental health issues on April 10. Yet, on April 28, UAPD was notified that the student’s NetID WiFi was used in an attempted log-in on a campus computer. The student was not on campus. The interim public safety officer said the student was “in care” and not on campus at the time of the log-in.
In May, the student was reportedly entered into a federal database to prevent the future purchase of a firearm.
At the time of the threats and in a statement last week, the university repeatedly declared that the student posed no threat to campus. Interim Chief Safety Officer Steve Patterson said as much in a statement last Friday on the incident.
“UAPD has categorized the matter as a mental health-related case rather than a criminal matter,” said Patterson. “The investigation by the University of Arizona Police Department found that friends identified a student in crisis off-campus in April and sought care for their friend. While the student was in supervised care — and therefore posed no threat to the campus community — the student’s friends turned in a loaded handgun to the Tucson Police Department and informed them that the student had made verbal threats, although later statements indicated that the threat was less clear.”
Yet, Patterson advised students to remain vigilant on campus.
“The April incident is an important reminder that all of us must remain vigilant in the face of threatening or concerning behavior,” said Patterson.
According to the report, the student was banned from campus and university activities.
The University of Arizona Police Department (UAPD) maintains a public list of banned individuals. Their policy maintains that these exclusionary orders are issued for a minimum of six months and potentially up to one year from the date of the offense. According to that list, there are 90 individuals who were banned within the potential same time frame as the student who issued the shooting threat.
At least one of the individuals within that time frame on the Exclusionary Orders list identifies as a transgender individual. It also appears that one of those individuals could have the ability to log in remotely to a campus computer — as it appears the student did on April 28 — having been an information technology services employee for the university until around May.
Questions concerning the ability of UArizona students to “remain vigilant” of an unidentified, banned student remain unanswered. UArizona referred AZPM to the redacted police report and Patterson’s statement when asked. The university also wouldn’t confirm whether the student is included in the UAPD exclusionary orders list.
The entire list of those banned within the same potential time frame as the student who made the shooting threat are listed below:
- Timothy Hallman, exclusion through Oct. 11, 2023
- Lawrence Littlefield, exclusion through Oct. 12, 2023
- Eric Gates, exclusion through Oct. 13, 2023
- Joseph Mackinder, exclusion through Oct. 19, 2023
- Jeffery Garland, exclusion through Oct. 19, 2023
- Jorge Howard, exclusion through Oct. 20, 2023
- Kyle Narreau, exclusion through Oct. 25, 2023
- Christopher Bravo, exclusion through Oct. 28, 2023
- Jacob Ficek, exclusion through Oct. 29, 2023
- Daniel Frescura, exclusion through Nov. 2, 2023
- Bob Bernal, exclusion through Nov. 3, 2023
- Jack Music, exclusion through Nov. 3, 2023
- Eva Arevalo, exclusion through Nov. 3, 2023
- Jerry Johnson, exclusion through Nov. 3, 2023
- Jordan Daniel, exclusion through Nov. 9, 2023
- Peter Fass, exclusion through Nov. 10, 2023
- David Petersen, exclusion through Nov. 14, 2023
- Ronald Andrews, exclusion through Nov. 15, 2023
- Luis Leveta, exclusion through Nov. 16, 2023
- Randy Elam, exclusion through Nov. 17, 2023
- Kieth Davis, exclusion through Nov. 17, 2023
- Chester Carroll, exclusion through Nov. 17, 2023
- Joshua Neuser, exclusion through Nov. 17, 2023
- Benjamin Burch, exclusion through Nov. 18, 2023
- Kimberly Meadows, exclusion through Nov. 22, 2023
- Wallace Leight, exclusion through Nov. 23, 2023
- Victor De Anda, exclusion through Nov. 26, 2023
- Roderick Davis, exclusion through Nov. 27, 2023
- James Aguilar, exclusion through Nov. 29, 2023
- Jarrod Fligg, exclusion through Dec. 1, 2023
- Chana Fligg, exclusion through Dec. 1, 2023
- Jamal Shannon, exclusion through Dec. 1, 2023
- Carlos Castillo, exclusion through Dec. 3, 2023
- Lucas Griffith, exclusion through Dec. 3, 2023
- Adrian Davis, exclusion through Dec. 5, 2023
- Gregory Nelson, exclusion through Dec. 5, 2023
- Victor Zevallos, exclusion through Dec. 12, 2023
- Matthew Verheyen, exclusion through Dec. 18, 2023
- Wayne Martino, exclusion through Dec. 21, 2023
- Mariah Ruiz, exclusion through Dec. 22, 2023
- Aaron Collelmo, exclusion through Dec. 22, 2023
- Sandra Steinmetz, exclusion through Dec. 30, 2023
- Brittney Garcia, exclusion through Dec. 30, 2023
- Selahattin Toprak, exclusion through Dec. 30, 2023
- Steven Helming, exclusion through Jan. 2, 2024
- David Meracle, exclusion through Jan. 4, 2024
- Curtis Linner, exclusion through Jan. 5, 2024
- Zachary Kindell, exclusion through Jan. 5, 2024
- Christian Diaz De Leon, exclusion through Jan. 7, 2024
- Dustin M. Klett, exclusion through Jan. 13, 2024
- Cody Hill, exclusion through Jan. 13, 2024
- Gregory Schmitt, exclusion through Jan. 15, 2024
- Robert Ramsey, exclusion through Jan. 15, 2024
- Steven Asmar, exclusion through Jan. 17, 2024
- Michael Todd, exclusion through Jan. 18, 2024
- William Turnbow, exclusion through Jan. 20, 2024
- Russell Higgins, exclusion through Jan. 26, 2024
- Leona Arreola, exclusion through Jan. 26, 2024
- Elijah Salzwedel, exclusion through Jan. 26, 2024
- Derek Kirven, exclusion through Feb. 4, 2024
- Jeffrey Jorgenson, exclusion through Feb. 4, 2024
- Paul Curran, exclusion through Feb. 8, 2024
- Jorge Ruiz, exclusion through Feb. 8, 2024
- Joseph Hardin, exclusion through Feb. 9, 2024
- Johnathan Keeney, exclusion through Feb. 9, 2024
- Chad Harvey, exclusion through Feb. 9, 2024
- Arik Ruybe, exclusion through Feb. 13, 2024
- Anthony Fuentes, exclusion through Feb. 13, 2024
- Isaac Gracia, exclusion through Feb. 13, 2024
- Jordan Young, exclusion through Feb. 14, 2024
- Raymond Ramirez, exclusion through Feb. 14, 2024
- John Lawicki, exclusion through Feb. 16, 2024
- Tristen Dejolie, exclusion through Feb. 17, 2024
- Richard Bowlby, exclusion through Feb. 18, 2024
- Roman Arriero, exclusion through Feb. 21, 2024
- Aric Ballard, exclusion through Feb. 22, 2024
- Jason Blaylock, exclusion through Feb. 24, 2024
- Ryan Kuhns, exclusion through Feb. 24, 2024
- Andrea Young, exclusion through Feb. 25, 2024
- Michael Burks, exclusion through Feb. 26, 2024
- Leonard Johnson, exclusion through Feb. 29, 2024
- Michael Clampitt, exclusion through Feb. 29, 2024
- Kevin Huma, exclusion through March 3, 2024
- Shannon Baker, exclusion through March 4, 2024
- Enrique Lopez, exclusion through March 7, 2024
- Kenton Landau, exclusion through March 21, 2024
- Herbert Forreset, exclusion through March 30, 2024
- Gabriel Sethi, exclusion through March 31, 2024
- Jamie Chacon, exclusion through April 7, 2024
- Leo Tift, exclusion through April 27, 2024
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
