Police investigate threat of violence posted to UWM Uncovered Facebook page
MILWAUKEE -- A threat of violence at school has prompted a massive investigation at UW-Milwaukee. An anonymous post on Facebook threatened shooting, and bringing a knife to class to stab students.
On Facebook page "UW-Milwaukee Uncovered," people can anonymously post secrets, confessions and desires.
"You have to be careful what you post online," Anna Evans, UWM senior said.
Last week, UW-Milwaukee police say someone made a post on the page that crossed the line.
"The person was just talking about their own anger -- angry about society, upset with life," UW-Milwaukee Police Chief Joseph LeMire said.
Chief LeMire says the post, which has been removed from the Facebook page, is now part of an investigation.
The post read, in part: "I want to kill people so bad. Some are specified people. Others can be just random."
"Someone should take a stand on that," Victor Henderson, UWM sophomore said.
Google has now been subpoenaed for documents related to the post. The posts are uploaded to a Google Docs page first, and then, the administrator of the UW-Milwaukee Uncovered Facebook page posts them.
Investigators are hoping to obtain an IP address from Google that will lead them to the person who wrote the post that read, in part:
Chief LeMire says the threat doesn't seem credible, and at this stage in the investigation, police believe the post likely wasn't written by a student.
"This information possibly came from in from out-of-state and nowhere near UW-Milwaukee," Chief LeMire said.
Most students on campus told FOX6 News they view the post as a cry for help.
"Someone might just be going through some things and they need to seek help before taking lawful orders into their hands," Henderson said.
"Certainly, they could be looking at criminal charges for what they intend to do or any actions they carried out," Chief LeMire said.
The administrator of the Facebook page, who approved the post, will likely not face any charges in this case -- but police say they do want to speak with her. FOX6 News reached out to her by telephone, and she declined to comment.
UW-Milwaukee police stress that this UW-Milwaukee Uncovered Facebook page is not affiliated with the university in any way.