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With little information from officials on SU threat, misinformation spreads online
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BATON ROUGE — In the wake of a campus-wide lockdown and evacuation for a threat, Southern University was quiet Friday afternoon.
Currently, and through the weekend, the only people allowed on campus are students who live here and essential employees like the dining hall staff. All classes and activities are cancelled.
The extended closure is out of an abundance of caution. Thursday morning, Southern sent an email to students concerning a 'potential threat', advising anyone on campus to shelter in place.
Eventually, the 'threat' was determined to be this email, sent to at least five other HBCUs, in which the writer claims they will shoot every Black person they see.
While some students praise SU's quick and sweeping response to the threat, they say the lack of solid information from authorities caused misinformation to surface.
"That added to the scary aspect," sophomore Malik Jackson said. "We don't know where this supposed threat is. We don't know what the supposed threat is. All we know you're in immediate danger if you're on campus, which I was."
A post that circulated on Facebook showed a man at the law school over the weekend who was apparently asking people if they knew where they would go if they died tonight.
The WBRZ Investigative Unit was present on Thursday when both Baton Rouge Police and the FBI tracked down the man in the photo and went to speak with him.
According to BRPD, though his behavior was "suspicious," he was deemed not to be a threat, nor was he connected to the email.
As of Friday afternoon, the source of the threat is still being investigated.
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