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Former lecturer in custody over alleged threats to US university

He allegedly sent a “threatening email” to members of the UCLA community with a link to his 800-page manifesto threatening violence

Published: Wed 2 Feb 2022, 3:11 AM

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  • AP

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Police officer escorts people past a police line in front of University Hill Elementary School across from the campus of the University of Colorado after a man accused of making mass shooting threats against the college as well as the University of California, Los Angeles, was arrested. — AP

Police officer escorts people past a police line in front of University Hill Elementary School across from the campus of the University of Colorado after a man accused of making mass shooting threats against the college as well as the University of California, Los Angeles, was arrested. — AP

A man who allegedly threatened the University of California, Los Angeles, and detailed potential violence against the prominent university over hundreds of pages has been taken into custody in Colorado following a standoff on Tuesday.

The man — identified as Matthew Christopher Harris, 31 — was taken into custody on Tuesday morning and is being held in Colorado on state charges after a standoff with police in Boulder. Federal charges may be pursued.

It wasn’t immediately known if Harris had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. Authorities were searching his Boulder apartment.

“Upon reviewing parts of the manifesto, we identified thousands of references to violence, stating things such as killing, death, murder, shootings, bombs, schoolyard massacre in Boulder and phrases like ‘burn and attack Boulder outside of the university,’” Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold said at a news conference.

The investigation in both states began Monday after Harris allegedly sent a “threatening email” to members of the UCLA community with a link to his 800-page manifesto threatening violence, officials said. UCLA police tracked Harris, a former postdoctoral philosophy fellow at the prestigious university, to Boulder and reached out to law enforcement there.

Los Angeles police became aware of Harris’ online posts, including YouTube videos, and the manifesto on Monday night, Chief Michel Moore said the next day during a police commission meeting. The material indicated that Harris was “potentially planning for a mass violence or shooting event at UCLA.”

Moore said the agency’s department’s mental evaluation unit had contact with Harris in the spring of 2021. It was not immediately known what led to that encounter or what, if anything, happened after.

UCLA officials said in-person classes — which had been cancelled Tuesday — will return on Wednesday.

Considered one of the top public universities in the country, UCLA is located in the affluent Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. The university has more than 31,000 undergraduate students and 14,000 graduate students.

The Los Angeles Times reported that it obtained emails that were sent to students and faculty showing that authorities are investigating the former UCLA lecturer who allegedly sent a video referencing a mass shooting and an 800-page manifesto with threats against individuals in the philosophy department.

Harris’ YouTube channel had more than 300 videos, the majority of which were uploaded on Monday, the Times reported. But the account had been terminated by the site by midnight.

The threats toward UCLA appear to be unrelated to bomb threats made on Monday — one day before the start of Black History Month — to at least a half-dozen historically Black universities in five states and the District of Columbia, FBI Los Angeles spokesperson Laura Eimiller said.

Harris was taken into custody after negotiators spoke to him by phone, Herold said. Authorities believe Harris had a connection in Boulder “but we’re just not sure of the magnitude of the relationships here at this time.”

Law enforcement evacuated a nearby school, as well as University of Colorado Boulder fraternity and sorority buildings during the incident. Residents in 65 homes were told to shelter in place.

It’s unclear if Harris has any ties to the University of Colorado Boulder, and the university did not immediately return requests for comment Tuesday. Herold said police had contact with Harris in October, though no criminal charges were filed and authorities are reviewing their reports from that encounter.

Authorities said he attempted to buy a handgun in November but his purchase was denied. Officials believe the transaction did not go through because of a California-based protection order that said he could not purchase or possess a firearm.

Harris began working at UCLA in the spring of 2019 as a postdoctoral fellow, according to a newsletter from the university’s philosophy department. His focus was on “philosophy of race, personal identity, and related issues in philosophy of mind.”

On bruinwalk.com, a website where UCLA students can post anonymous reviews of professors and other staff members, students gave Harris low ratings. In one review, a student who took the class in winter 2021 wrote that Harris is “extremely unprofessional.”

The UCLA campus was rocked by a shooting in 2016 when a former student killed his estranged wife in a Minneapolis suburb and traveled to UCLA, where he fatally shot an engineering professor who had been his mentor and then killed himself.



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