Campus Alert Archive
Mizzou

'I'm Going to Shoot Every Black Person I See': The Yik Yak Threat That Tested Mizzou Mid-Protest

MOthreat of violenceemergency notificationmedium confidence

On the night of November 10, 2015 — one day after system president Tim Wolfe resigned amid the Concerned Student 1950 movement — anonymous posts on the social-media app Yik Yak threatened to 'stand my ground tomorrow and shoot every black person I see' and 'kill' Black students gathered in parking lots. MU Police issued an MU Alert acknowledging the threats and reassuring the community that no immediate threat existed; in the early hours of November 11, MUPD apprehended Hunter M. Park, a 19-year-old Missouri University of Science & Technology student, in Rolla, more than 90 miles away.

Alerts
3
Response
60 min
Killed
—
Injured
—
Institution
University of Missouri
Public R1 · MO
~35,000 studentsMU Alert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

3 messages in sequence · 2 verified verbatim

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Verified verbatimMU Alert official Twitter/X post the night of November 10, 2015, quoted verbatim by CNN and CBS News coverage of the Yik Yak threats131 chars
There is no immediate threat to campus. Please do not spread rumors and follow @MUAlert at http://mualert.missouri.edu for updates.
Verbatim from the official @MUAlert Twitter/X account the night of November 10, 2015; the same wording is quoted by CNN and CBS News
The short tweet deliberately balanced reassurance ('no immediate threat') with crowd control ('please do not spread rumors'), responding both to the Yik Yak threats and to separate KKK rumors circulating that night
Issued during a period of extreme campus tension: Wolfe had resigned November 9; the football team had ended its boycott; a faculty walkout was ongoing
UPDATESMS
Verified verbatimMU Alert text quoted verbatim in ABC News coverage of the arrest234 chars
MU Alert: University of Missouri Police have apprehended the suspect who posted threats to campus on YikYak and other social media. The suspect is in MUPD custody and was not located on or near the MU campus at the time of the threat.
This is the actual MU Alert language quoted in ABC News reporting on November 11, 2015 — the only verbatim-confirmed alert in this case
The 'not located on or near the MU campus at the time of the threat' phrasing is a deliberate jurisdictional clarification: Park was contacted in Rolla, 90+ miles south
Issued within hours of Park's apprehension to short-circuit the panic that had been building all night
Park was a student at Missouri University of Science & Technology (Missouri S&T), a sister campus in the UM System, which complicated 'is he one of us' framing
FOLLOW-UPEmail
Approximate reconstruction471 chars
Message from Interim Chancellor Hank Foley: Last night, the MU Police Department received and investigated multiple online threats against our community, including threats specifically targeting Black students. The suspect has been arrested and is in custody. While there is no current threat to campus, classes are being held as scheduled and faculty have been asked to accommodate students who choose not to attend. Counselors are available. We will not be intimidated.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Reconstructed from Mizzou News Bureau archive and Chronicle of Higher Education reporting on Foley's statement
The 'classes held as scheduled, but faculty accommodate absences' framing is a hallmark MU response — Mizzou did not cancel classes even though many students did not attend
Foley had just been named interim chancellor on November 12 after Loftin's resignation; this message is functionally his first major communication
'We will not be intimidated' framing tied the threat response to the broader Concerned Student 1950 movement
Context

Background

The November 10-11, 2015 Yik Yak threats at the University of Missouri came at the peak of the Concerned Student 1950 protests. On November 9, system president Tim Wolfe and chancellor R. Bowen Loftin had both resigned after a football-team boycott and student Jonathan Butler's seven-day hunger strike. The next night, anonymous posts on Yik Yak threatened to 'shoot every black person I see' tomorrow on campus and warned 'don't go to campus tomorrow.' MU Police issued an MU Alert acknowledging the threats and reassuring the community of no immediate danger, while also quelling separate KKK rumors circulating that night. In the early hours of November 11, Hunter M. Park — a 19-year-old Missouri University of Science & Technology student in Rolla — was apprehended; investigators later said he had researched the Umpqua Community College shooting from October 2015 (which had occurred just five weeks earlier). MU Alert published a second message: 'University of Missouri Police have apprehended the suspect who posted threats to campus on YikYak and other social media. The suspect is in MUPD custody and was not located on or near the MU campus at the time of the threat.' Interim Chancellor Hank Foley issued a morning message confirming classes would continue and that faculty should accommodate students who chose not to attend. Park ultimately pleaded guilty to making terroristic threats and was sentenced to prison. The case is a defining example of how anonymous-app threats interacted with high-tension campus protest moments — and of how an MU Alert system designed for active shooters had to be used to address social-media threats whose plausibility depended on the broader political climate.
Analysis

Key Findings

MU Alert was activated for a Yik Yak threat, not a physical incident — a relatively early example of social-media-only threats triggering campus alerts
Hunter Park was a student at Missouri S&T (Rolla), part of the same UM System, complicating the 'jurisdictional clarification' messaging in the second alert
The threats came at the peak of the Concerned Student 1950 protests, one day after Wolfe and Loftin resigned — context made the threats more plausible to students
MU did not cancel classes on November 11 but instructed faculty to accommodate absences — a middle-ground response now common at universities facing protest-era threats
Park reportedly had researched the Umpqua Community College shooting five weeks earlier, per the Washington Post — illustrating how mass-shooting events generate copycat threats
The second MU Alert (verbatim-confirmed via ABC News) explicitly noted Park 'was not located on or near the MU campus at the time of the threat' — jurisdictional reassurance language
Outcome
Hunter M. Park arrested approximately 1:50 AM CST November 11 and charged with making a terroristic threat. Park was never on or near the Columbia campus. A second Missouri S&T student was later charged separately for related threats. Park ultimately pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison. Many MU students nonetheless avoided campus November 11 amid lingering fear.
Provenance

Sources

  1. national media
    2 Arrested for Allegedly Making Terrorist Threats Amid University of Missouri Turmoil — ABC News
    abcnews.go.com
  2. Social
    MU Alert official Twitter/X post — 'no immediate threat to campus' (November 10, 2015)
    twitter.com
  3. national media
    University of Missouri students report threats; police quell KKK rumors — CNN
    edition.cnn.com
  4. national media
    Suspect arrested after racist Yik Yak threats at University of Missouri — Christian Science Monitor
    csmonitor.com
  5. national media
    The Ticker: Amid Fears of Violence, Police in Missouri Arrest 2 Students Over Threats on Yik Yak — Chronicle of Higher Education
    chronicle.com
  6. national media
    Man charged in Mizzou Yik Yak threats had interest in Oregon college shootings, police say — Washington Post
    washingtonpost.com
  7. encyclopedia
    2015–2016 University of Missouri protests — Wikipedia
    en.wikipedia.org
  8. Official
    Missouri S&T — Student arrested for social media threats
    news.mst.edu
Tags
threat-of-violenceyik-yaksocial-media-threatmizzouconcerned-student-1950title-vipublic-r1missouriracial-threatumpqua-copycatnovember-2015
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion