White Man Charged for Issuing Threats at Howard Students

A 24-year-old man from Alexandria is facing charges in connection with racist death threats online on 4chan and Reddit that targeted students at historically Black Howard University in Washington, D.C., reports the Root. “Any niggers left at Howard University after 10 tomorrow will be the first to go,” the messages read in part, according to the Washington Post. “After all it’s not murder if they’re Black.” Authorities took John Edgar Rust into custody Wednesday and charged him with making the threats from a café in northern Virginia back in 2015. According to KSDK, once the threat was made, authorities narrowed down the identity of the IP address of the computer associated with the person who wrote the posts. The racist message referenced protests at the University of Missouri over the way racial disputes on campus were handled, which, in turn, ended up leading the school’s presidents to resign. “I left MU [University of Missouri] yesterday because I couldn’t put up with it anymore. I go home to Maryland and what do I see? The same old sh*t. Turn on the news and it’s always the niggers causing trouble everywhere,” the message read in part. “So I’ve decided. Any niggers left at Howard University after 10 tomorrow will be the first to go. And any of those cheapskate niggers who try to get out using the metro will regret that choice real fast.” Rust is a felon who is barred from using the Internet. The 26-year-old is a registered sex offender, convicted in 2012 in Loudoun County of aggravated sexual battery and indecent liberties with a child by a custodian.