Photo by Brett Bowers

Police arrested a 24-year-old man who they say anonymously threatened to kill people at Howard University nearly two years ago.

Officials say that John Edgar Rust, a previously convicted felon, posted messages on the web forums 4chan and Reddit on November 11, 2015 from a Panera Bread restaurant in Alexandria.

He’s been charged with the transmission in interstate commerce of a communication containing threats to injure the person of another, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The threats came two days after University of Missouri president Timothy Wolfe resigned amid protests about his handling of racial issues on campus.

The message posted to 4chan included a photo of Wolf. Rust, an Alexandria resident, allegedly wrote that he left Missouri the previous day because he “couldn’t put up with it anymore,” and when he returned home he saw the same thing on the news: black people “causing trouble everywhere.”

So he came up with a plan, according to this except from his post:

Any n***** left at Howard University after 10 tomorrow will be the first to go. And any of those cheapskate n***** who try to get out using the metro will regret that choice real fast. Sure, the po po will take me down, but I’ll go out a hero knowing I made the world better. I just hope at least someone else can see it too and continue the fight.

They were too stupid to know what to do when they got freed. They’re too stupid to know what to do now they got rights. Sometimes the best thing to do is to put stupid out of its
misery.

After all, it’s not murder if they’re black.

Officials say he posted a link to the 4chan post on Reddit under the username “watchouthoward.”

In response, Howard officials increased security measures on campus, some professors cancelled classes, and students consoled their peers.

“I’m not afraid. I plan on going about my day,” student activist Aliya Jones told DCist at the time. “We’re just trying to comfort people and help calm everyone down. People are afraid for their lives and everyone is a little frantic.”

After Rust’s arrest, Howard University tweeted that officials are “relieved.”

Rust is scheduled to appear in an Alexandria court on Thursday at 2 p.m. He faces a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison, if convicted.