Student charged in U. of C. threat released to custody of mother
Jabari Dean is accused of making an online threat to ‘‘execute’’ 16 white students or staff members and then kill as many white policemen as possible in retaliation for the shooting death of Laquan McDonald.
Staff Reporter A federal judge ordered a South Side college student released into his mother’s custody Tuesday after he was accused of threatening to shoot several people at the University of Chicago.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Cox told the mother of Jabari Dean, 21, she would be responsible for reporting her son if he violates any conditions of his pretrial release. The judge told Dean to stay away from drugs and alcohol, submit to a mental-health evaluation and stay off the Internet unless he needs it for his studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Dean told the judge he primarily has access to the Internet while on the UIC campus. Damon Cheronis, Dean’s attorney, stood between Dean and his mother during the hearing. The mother, identified by family as Kikuyu Dorsey, exchanged a few quick glances with her son but otherwise appeared to avoid eye contact.
Dean’s mother asked the judge whether he will be able to get a job despite media coverage of his threat, and she asked if the conditions of his release would last, “the rest of his life, or?” The judge explained they would only last until his criminal case is resolved.
Dean’s chilling comments on the website worldstarhip
hop.com shut down the University of Chicago’s Hyde Park campus Monday. He admitted he threatened on the website to “execute” 16 white students or staff members at the University of Chicago — one for each bullet that hit Laquan McDonald.
Dean quickly deleted the post, but someone sent a screenshot to the FBI. The words are contained in the criminal complaint filed against Dean:
“This is my only warning. At 10 a.m. on Monday mourning (sic) I am going to the campus quad of the University of Chicago. I will be armed with a M-4 Carbine and 2 Desert Eagles all fully loaded. I will execute aproximately (sic) 16 white male students and or staff, which is the same number of time (sic) Mcdonald (sic) was killed. I then will die killing any number of white policemen that I can in the process. This is not a joke. I am to do my part to rid the world of the white devils. I expect you to do the same . . .”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tobara Richardson said Monday that Dean didn’t have the means to pull off his threat. And his uncle told reporters Dean is simply a “stupid kid” with nothing to do. A source familiar with the investigation said authorities found no gun when they searched Dean’s home.
Still, the University of Chicago canceled classes and activities on its Hyde Park campus after FBI counterterrorism officials warned the school of the threat. The university announced normal operations would resume Tuesday.
Dean posted his comments four days after City Hall released a video of a white police officer shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, who is black, 16 times. Authorities have charged that officer, Jason Van Dyke, with murder.