Matthew Harris, a former UCLA ‘philosophy of race’ lecturer was arrested by Colorado SWAT for threatening to commit a mass shooting against white members of the philosophy department.
SWAT officers took Harris into custody after a 3-hour stand-off at his apartment.
VIDEO:
UCLA cancelled in-person learning on Tuesday due to the threat Harris emailed to the UCLA philosophy department, The Los Angeles Times reported.
UCLA received major backlash for initially downplaying the mass shooting threat by saying police were aware of a ‘concerning email and posting’ sent to some students.
What @UCLA and @UCPDLA are failing to inform students and staff of is that this “concerning email” is a major mass shooter threat at UCLA.
ABSOLUTELY DO NOT GO TO CLASS TOMORROW.
Fuck admin, UCPD, and anyone else who tries to downplay this. https://t.co/Sn3nm0AUCY pic.twitter.com/sa1qdYuImn
— Steven Chun 🦄 (@stxchun) February 1, 2022
Matthew Harris uploaded hundreds of videos to his YouTube channel about shootings before they were removed.
The email Harris sent to the philosophy department contained an 800-page manifesto where he also threatened to attack Colorado University.
“The level of violence we saw in the manifesto was obviously alarming,” said Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold. “It was very violent and it was very disturbing.”
The Daily Bruin reported that Harris was put on leave from UCLA last year after students complained that he sent them pornographic material.
According to the Times, Harris, 31, made racist comments on his YouTube videos (now scrubbed) and threatened white people.
The Los Angeles Times reported (emphasis ours):
UCLA will resume in-person classes Wednesday after a former lecturer who sent campus members a video referencing a mass shooting and an 800-page manifesto with specific threats was taken into custody Tuesday by police in Boulder, Colo.
Harris’ YouTube channel contained more than 300 videos, the majority of which were uploaded Monday. By midnight, the channel displayed a message saying that the account had been terminated.
A video titled “UCLA PHILOSOPHY (MASS SHOOTING)” was posted Sunday and contained disturbing imagery, including footage of the 2017 mass shooting at a Las Vegas music festival and clips from the 2003 movie “Zero Day,” which is loosely based on the Columbine High School mass shooting.
In several videos, Harris makes racist comments. He also cryptically names specific locations on the UCLA campus as he says they’re added to his “list.”
He talks off-camera while he plays a video game in which he runs around a virtual city, firing a gun at cars and people.
In one video, he repeats, “Do you make explosives?”
“Someday the s— might actually hit the fan,” Harris said.
The Times obtained a partial copy of Harris’ email to the UCLA philosophy department.
He makes references to race and uses several profanities. He included links to his manifesto and videos, including the video that appeared to threaten a mass shooting.
“da war is comin,” he wrote. “forward dis [expletive] to our tha goldhead caucasoid princess.”
UCLA’s philosophy department has canceled in-person classes after a former lecturer sent a video referencing a mass shooting and an 800-page manifesto with “specific threats” to some department members Monday, according to material provided to The Times.https://t.co/RyiupoimCC
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) February 1, 2022
