Yik Yak Threat at SVSU Said, ‘I’m Going to Shoot Every Black Person I Can on Campus’

Police at Saginaw Valley State University say a threat posted on the social media site Yik Yak read, “I’m going to shoot every black person I can on campus. Starting tomorrow morning.”

The message triggered an investigation and police security response that led to the arrest of a Delta College student living in SVSU housing.

Emmanuel D. Bowden, 21, is charged with making a false report or threat of terrorism, a felony that carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Emmanuel Bowden

According to SVSU University Police reports, a user on the social media application Yik Yak, just after midnight Friday, Nov. 13, posted the message about shooting black people.

The police reports state that, after the post received multiple “negative replies,” the original poster replied with four additional messages that read, “Its [sic] a joke,” “I’m black,” “I was going to give it an hour to see how you all would react,” and “Right. I could be angry and just expressing myself lol.”

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Yik Yak is an application that lets users in a geographic location “instantly speak with those right around you” while using pseudonyms, according to the application’s website. {snip}

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University spokesman J.J. Boehm has said Bowden, a Canton resident, is a full-time Delta College student who was living on SVSU’s campus. SVSU has 13 students from Delta living on campus this year, Boehm said.

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