Suspect arrested after threatening to 'execute' students at University of Chicago

The suspect Jabari Dean, 21, appeared in court on Monday after his arrest

The campus of University of Chicago is shown (Matt Frankel/Getty Images)

Suspect Jabari Dean, 21, was arrested after allegedly posting online threats saying he would kill 16 students and staff members.

The University of Chicago had cancelled its classes on Monday after the FBI warned of online threats of gun violence.

University of Chicago President Robert J Zimmer made the announcement on Sunday night saying that the Hyde Park campus “will have an increased police and security presence on and around campus, including police personnel with visible weapons and other additional measures.”

The anonymous online threat mentioned an attack at the campus quad at 10am on Monday morning. The FBI is currently investigating the legitimacy and source of the threat.

It was later reported that police had arrested a student from another college over the threat. Jabari Dean, 21, a student at the nearby University of Illinois at Chicago, was arrested and charged with threatening to kill 16 white male students or staff in retaliation for the shooting of a black teenager by a police officer last year.

“University security personnel are keeping in close contact with the FBI, which is continuing to investigate the threat,” President Zimmer wrote in a statement.

The announcement comes a month after a gunman opened fire at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. Nine people were killed in the massacre.

Last month, a gunman opened fire at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, killing nine people. Gun violence has also killed and injured hundreds of others in 2015. There has been 47 school shootings this year alone.

University of Chicago professor Matthias Staisch told ABC Chicago that the cancellations would affect more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students, faculty members and staff.

"They basically said all nonessential people should stay away and if people come, they should stay indoors. I actually thought that didn't go far enough. I think if there is enough of a threat to tell people to send out this email - because obviously it freaks everyone out - don't open some sort of backdoor for some hero to show up anyway and see what's really going on,” he said. “I think it's a smart thing to just cancel everything.”