Penn State student made shooting threat against university as an ‘experiment,’ police say
A Penn State student was charged Thursday after university police accused him of threatening on Twitter to commit a shooting at the university.
Derrick Lawson, 19, admitted he used an anonymous Twitter account in December to post threatening messages, including “want to shoot up Penn State on my way out,” police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause filed Thursday.
Lawson, of Montgomery County, posted the tweets as an “experiment to see how fast a response would happen and how long until it was tracked down,” police wrote.
He also admitted to posting other distressed tweets to make it seem like they came from “someone with the mindset of wanting to commit a mass shooting,” police wrote.
Lawson had no intention of committing a shooting, harming himself or others, police wrote. He posted the tweets while working at Rec Hall and told his friends about the tweets in text messages, police wrote.
A defense lawyer for Lawson was not listed on a court document.
Lawson was charged with one misdemeanor count of terroristic threats that caused serious public inconvenience. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 15.