Former UCLA Instructor Cancels Class Amid Gun Threat Email Incident

Gun Violence Threat Video and Threatening Statement Sent to Students and Faculty
Authorities Urgently Arrest Former Instructor

[Asia Economy International Desk Reporter] A commotion erupted at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) when a former instructor's gun threat led to the cancellation of all classes at the university.

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

According to the LA Times and others on the 1st (local time), Matthew Christopher Harris (31), a former UCLA instructor, sent an email to UCLA philosophy students and faculty containing a video threatening a mass shooting and an 800-page threatening manifesto.

The video included scenes from the 2017 Las Vegas music festival shooting, the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado, and the movie "Zero Day," which is based on these incidents. Harris sent emails to students containing racist slurs against Jewish and East Asian people and also mentioned content from shooting video games involving cars and people.

Authorities urgently arrested and detained Harris in Boulder, Colorado.

He had been suspended last year for sending obscene videos to a student.

The university cooperated with the LA Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to switch classes to online on that day, and face-to-face classes are expected to resume on the 2nd.