Update on campus threat

An update from our post earlier today on the threat that caused UCLA to shift to online classes today:

From the LA Daily News: ...UCLA is conducting classes remotely Tuesday, Feb. 1, after a former lecturer sent messages to the university’s staff referencing a mass shooting and other threats, officials said.

Matthew Harris, who was taken into custody Tuesday morning in Boulder, Colorado, emailed links to hundreds of videos on YouTube early Monday and an 800-page manifesto making “specific threats” to people in the university’s philosophy department, university officials said.

Late Tuesday morning, the university told students in an email the suspect had been apprehended.

“We are greatly relieved to share that law enforcement officers in Colorado have taken into custody the individual who made threats against some members of our UCLA community yesterday,” the email said.

“While the campus will continue with plans to keep instruction remote today, with this development, we will return to in-person instruction tomorrow.”

Shortly after, Boulder police Chief Maris Herold, during a news conference near where the suspect was taken into custody, said UCLA police learned Harris was living in Boulder and notified Boulder police Monday evening.

On Tuesday morning, Boulder officers blocked off the area surrounding his apartment and evacuated a nearby school. Crisis negotiators communicated with him over the phone and persuaded him to surrender at about 11 a.m. Boulder time, Herold said.

“Today was a scary day for the people of Boulder,” Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty said.

“Upon reviewing parts of the manifesto we identified thousands of references to violence, stating things such as ‘killing,’ ‘death,’ ‘murder,’ ‘shootings,’ ‘bombs,’ ‘schoolyard massacre’ and ‘Boulder,’ and phrases like ‘burn and attack Boulder outside of the university,’ ” Chief Herold said.

Harris attempted to purchase a firearm in Jefferson County in Colorado on Nov. 2, Herold said. That purchase was denied because Harris is listed in a database of people barred from buying guns because of a “protective order” in California... 

Boulder police are outside the apartment building at 955 Broadway in that Colorado city where Matthew Harris is barricaded on Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022. Harris, a former UCLA postdoctoral student and lecturer who is accused of making threats to the Westwood campus’ philosophy department, was eventually taken into custody. (Photo by Cliff Grassmick/Boulder Daily Camera)

Full story at https://www.dailynews.com/2022/02/01/shooting-threat-investigated-at-ucla-classes-to-be-held-remotely-on-tuesday/.

An email from the UCLA Hillel provided additional information:

..."The person in question had posted several antisemitic videos of himself playing an active shooter game while ranting about Ariel Sharon, Bar Mitzvahs, Jewish control over the media, and other threats directed towards our community... Within minutes, police arrived and our building was locked down while the threat was investigated..."

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From ABC News: ...UCLA officials said in-person classes — which had been canceled Tuesday — will return on Wednesday...

Full story at https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/ucla-switches-classes-remote-threats-82600908.