TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Tips from the public were a key part of arresting a man charged with threatening a mass shooting at University of Arizona.
We’re learning more about the case of a man charged with leveling a mass shooting threat against University of Arizona Fraternities and Sororities. University Safety and an FBI agent were telling us more about how important it was to receive public tips on the case.”
Investigators say 27 year old Michael Pengchung Lee went on the social media app SnapChat and said, “There’s going to be a mass tragedy and atrocity at the UofA Soon.” Our spelling, capitalization and punctuation matches the alleged postings quoted in court documents.
Court papers say Lee was unable to form normal social relationships and was angry at people who can.
Investigators say he more specifically threatened Fraternities and Sororities with statements like: “The day of Retribution is upon us, I shall get revenge on all the chads and stacies!!”
People reported the posts, UA Police and the FBI got involved and soon Lee was facing state and Federal charges.
Since the on-campus murder of UA Professor Thomas Meixner the university worked to improve campus security including adding retired FBI agent Steve Patterson as Chief Safety Officer.
He says the process includes a threat assessment team to separate empty threats from threats that may turn into action.
“They look at the totality of what this individual has done in the past maybe, they look at other social media, they look at potential prior criminal activity. You know, they look at totality of everything.”
The case also involved the FBI’s Violent Crime Task force and the Joint Terrorism Task Force. That’s where FBI Agent Jon Edwards comes in.
“So obviously, public information, working with your external partners, and collaborating. Those are key elements to success. And that's what we did here in this case.”
Students we talked to say they understand the need to disclose what they know.
Gavin Tampa says, “If you feel threatened or like the well being of other people, you should probably report something. If there's an actual threat like that. You feel like there's some merit behind it. I think by all means, you should report that.”
Ryan Sunga says, “If worse comes to worse then nothing goes wrong, and everyone’s safe.”
And safety experts say if you feel a threat is imminent call 911 right away.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
