Rick Bowmer/AP
SALT LAKE CITY — A College of Utah pupil was arrested and charged with making terrorist threats on Wednesday after police mentioned she threatened to detonate a nuclear reactor if the college’s soccer group did not win a recreation final Saturday.
Charging paperwork filed in Salt Lake Metropolis on Wednesday allege the 21-year previous pupil posted threats earlier than Utah’s recreation in opposition to San Diego State College on Saturday, warning that she “was going to detonate the nuclear reactor that’s situated within the College of Utah inflicting a mass destruction.”
The threats had been allegedly posted on YikYak, a social media platform that permits customers to put up anonymously and which rose to prominence on school campuses a decade in the past.
In keeping with the charging paperwork, the coed studied engineering and had data of the college’s nuclear reactor.
The College of Utah is amongst greater than two dozen U.S. universities with nuclear engineering packages that use reactors for college and pupil analysis.
The college mentioned in an announcement on Thursday that the reactor was secured and campus regulation enforcement had protocols in place to make sure no breaches are made. Officers mentioned the coed, who it didn’t identify, admitted to posting the risk and advised investigators on Wednesday that it was meant as a joke.
“We now have a zero-tolerance coverage for these sorts of threats,” College of Utah Police Chief Jason Hinojosa mentioned.
Courtroom data didn’t record an lawyer representing the coed. A name made to her household’s listed dwelling cellphone quantity went unanswered on Thursday.
Utah defeated San Diego State in Saturday’s recreation, 35-7.