Over the weekend, police at Harvard University were on high alert, stepping up security and investigating a racially-charged death threat that was emailed to hundreds of students, staff and affiliates on Friday afternoon.
Hundreds At Harvard Receive Shooting Threats
The threat stated that the author would come to Harvard on Saturday at "11 clock" and "shoot all of you" and "kill you individually." Several students received a second email with the same text. The emails included racist language, referring to their intended recipients as "slit-eyes," and many of the intended recipients were women of Asian descent.
Addressed to "All students at Harvard," the text of both threatening emails included what appeared to be racist language. The emails referred to their intended recipients as "slit-eyes." Many, but not all, of the emails' intended recipients were women of Asian descent.
The threatening emails were not anonymous. In the emails, the author or authors self-identified as Stephanie Nguyen and claimed to live in Boston. The address from which the first email was received, however, identified the sender as Eduardo Nguyen. The Google Mail address identified the sender as Huy Dinh.
Dozens of Harvard students, some of whom received the death threat on Friday, had previously been contacted, through the same Google Mail address, by a person who self-identified as Huy Dinh. Those messages date back months.
According to The Harvard Crimson, the Harvard University Police Department increased its presence on campus this weekend in response to the threat, though it issued a community advisory message on Saturday morning stating that threat likely originated from outside the country and "may not be credible."
Then, on Saturday afternoon, some Harvard students received another email from the address that had sent the death threat, but this time apologizing for the previous day's message. The author of the email, who claimed to be 15 years old and live in France, wrote that his or her younger brother had sent Friday's threatening message, and asked for "forgiveness."
Saturday's message from the "hotmail.de" address also expressed regret for the original threat. The sender asked that recipients "please feel sorry for the terrible news that my brother has written to my email address please forgive me for the unpleasant message."
The sender claimed to be "not a killer, not a killer" and wrote that "There is no running amok in Harvard University I promise you." The body of Saturday's message, unlike Friday's, was not signed with a name.
"I will bear the responsibility please call back all media," the message read.
The apology email is actually laughable. It appears that someone realized that they could be some deep shit, and then tried to cover their ass. A little late for that. Who the hell does this -- even as a joke?
HUPD says its investigation is "open and ongoing."
More here: Death Threat Investigation Continues as New Email Evidence Surfaces