College campuses in the Philly and NYC metro area have increased security today on alerts issued by the FBI regarding an “unspecified” threat.
The ominous messages of violence the Bureau and ATF grew concerned about during the weekend appeared online, according to sources familiar with the ongoing investigation.
Due to the mass shooting at Umpqua Community College last week, an FBI spokesman said they alerted numerous universities in Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware about the potential for similar attacks “out of an abundance of caution.”
The internet threats come only days after a heavily-armed young man entered the gun-free zone of UCC Oregon, killing or wounding nearly two dozen there, including a professor, before either being shot himself or committing suicide.
The rate of mass killings by such deranged gunmen -- especially in 2015 -- has precipitously climbed in recent years. Thus, federal and state authorities are constantly monitoring online chatter now, in an effort to prevent more assaults on unarmed citizens.
Today’s warnings from the FBI were directed to both university students and faculties attending classes throughout the targeted metropolitan areas this afternoon, and will extend into the week or until suspects are in police custody.
No other information about the nature of the threat/s intercepted by law enforcement agencies on Sunday -- or who posted these to the Web -- has been furnished at this time.
However, investigators are reporting that, since the UCC tragedy, they have seen “similar social media postings throughout the country.”
