Los Angeles Police arrested 21-year-old Carlos Huerta, a senior at Loyola in connection with an online threat to instigate a shooting on campus. Carlos Huerta, a senior, was arrested and taken into custody Saturday night for investigation of making criminal threats on the internet. This is one of many investigations that have started to rise over the last few years.



According to CNN, Huerta is suspected of posting a message that said he would shoot and kill as many people as possible on campus before being killed himself by the police.

The threat was posted on a chat board called Juicycampus a website, frequently used by college students. The threat was reported to the police around 11:30 on Saturday and officers have since been dispatched to patrol the campus as a further precaution. Investigators working with campus officials determined that the threat had come from the computer registered to Huerta, police said.

While there was never an indication that the threat made was a valid one and there is no ongoing threat to LMU reported Deputy Chief Michael Downing, head of the LAPD Counterterrorism and Criminal Intelligence Bureau.

Chief Downing made it clear that threats are taken seriously and will have a quick response, he and his team will track down those responsible for sending the messages, and will arrest them as needed.

This incident marks the second time in less than a week that someone has been arrested for allegedly threatening a shooting spree in the LA area, both occurring just days after the mall shooting in Omaha, Nebraska.

On Friday, Jarrad Willis, 20, of Melbourne was arrested by the LAPD after detectives traced the address of his Internet provider, after a posting by Willis on an online board that said a shooting attack would take place at the Grove shopping center near Beverly Hills.

Willis has been charged in Australia with creating a false belief, which violates Australian law.

As the usage of online chat rooms and message boards becomes more ubiquitous world wide, it is obvious that the status of these online mediums has moved beyond that of a novelty. Law enforcement officials, particularly in light of recent Internet-related crimes and events, take threatening messages left on these chat rooms and message boards very seriously.

The website (JuicyCampus) advertises itself as completely anonymous, but there is nothing anonymous in the electronic age added Bove. With the growing trend in internet threats comes also the growing trend in internet tracking and security of threats that have become more and more popular.