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Pasco man accused of threatening to 'shoot up' college
Josh Cascio reports
WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. - A 22-year-old Wesley Chapel man is behind bars and accused of threatening to "shoot up" his former university.
Police in Illinois said Jonathan Zheng posted the threats on Reddit towards the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he was a student until last year. Authorities said someone saw the threats and was extremely concerned, leading them to notify police.
"We have no choice but to take this seriously when we see threats like this because of the reality of the situation," said University of Illinois Police Department spokesperson Patrick Wade.
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Zheng is a former student at the school, although it is unclear as to why he was dismissed from it last year. A Reddit user noticed his alleged posts and reported them to campus police.
"We were able to work with Reddit to very quickly get some digital evidence and identify the person who posted it," Wade said.
Deputies in Pasco County arrested Zheng without incident, and they said he admitted to posting the threats online.
These days law enforcement agencies have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to online threats, even if they're meant as a joke.
"In this case we don't know how far this could've gone had someone just dismissed it as something they saw on the internet," said Pasco County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Amanda Hunter. "All we can say is those are not jokes. We take that seriously any threat of violence toward any institution whether it is a school or a government building the Pasco County Sheriff's Office is going to take that seriously."