Man Who Threatened to "Shoot Every Black Person" at Mizzou Protests Sentenced to Probation

Impact

Hunter M. Park will face no jail time for threatening to "shoot every black person I see" during protests that roiled the University of Missouri's Columbia campus last year.

Judge Kevin Crane of Boone County, Mo., sentenced the 20-year-old to three years suspended sentence and five years probation on Thursday, according to multiple reports.

"Hunter is a good person who made a terrible mistake, posted some terrible stuff on the Internet," Park's attorney, Jeffrey Hilbrenner, told Reuters, "but, the Hunter I've gotten to know is a really good person."

"I'm going to stand my ground tomorrow and shoot every black person I see." — Hunter M. Park

In November, Park posted threats to the social media app Yik Yak that earned him a felony charge for making terrorist threats.

These included, "I'm going to stand my ground tomorrow and shoot every black person I see," according to the Columbia Daily Tribune.

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"Some of you are alright. Don't go to campus tomorrow," he added in another post. "We're waiting for you at the parking lots," read a third, according to Reuters. "We will kill you."

The threats were a response to student protests over a series of racist incidents on campus.

The bulk of the protests lasted nearly two weeks and included a nine-day hunger strike by Mizzou graduate student Jonathan Butler. Tim Wolfe, the former president of the University of Missouri system, resigned amid accusations from students that he'd handled recent developments on campus inappropriately, including the appearance of racist graffiti in a dorm bathroom, racist and homophobic verbal attacks on the student body president and the erosion of graduate students health care coverage.

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Prosecutors initially recommended three years in prison for Park, but are okay with how things turned out.

"We hoped for some incarceration," Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Brouck Jacobs said, according to the Columbia Daily Tribune, "but the fact that he got a felony conviction over a suspended imposition of sentence is appropriate."

Read more: Why This Black Student Is on Hunger Strike to Get a Missouri Colleges President Fired