University of Missouri police have arrested Hunter Park, who allegedly threatened on social media to harm students, the police department said Wednesday in a statement.
Park, 19, is not a student at the University of Missouri-Columbia, MUPD said.
The suspect "was not located on or near the MU campus at the time of the threat," police said. They found Park early Wednesday in the town of Rolla, about two hours outside Columbia.
He is being held on $4,500 bail at the Boone County Jail in Columbia, the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Multiple threatening messages emerged Tuesday evening, and it's currently unclear whether one person was behind them all. However, the school's chancellor, R. Bowen Loftin, tweeted Wednesday morning that the suspect in custody is believed to have used several different accounts. He also wrote that the university plans to resume a regular schedule "with increased security."
Some of the threats were posted on Yik Yak, an anonymous social media messaging app. One warned people not to go to campus on Wednesday. Another read that the writer planned to "shoot every black person I see."
Someone also called in a threat to Mizzou's Black Culture Center while some students met with members of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus, ABC 17 News reported. The building was put on lockdown.
Yik Yak released a statement addressing the threats posted to the app.
"There’s a point where discussion can go too far -- and the threats that were posted on Yik Yak last night were both upsetting and completely unacceptable," it read. "Let’s not waste any words here: This sort of misbehavior is NOT what Yik Yak is to be used for. Period."
Racial tensions have been simmering on Mizzou's campus for months and intensified over the weekend, when at least 30 black members of the football team decided to bow out of team activities until the school's president stepped down.
On Monday, President Tim Wolfe resigned and Loftin announced he would step down at the end of the year.