DOWNTOWN — A federal judge on Tuesday loosened restrictions on a man accused of plotting to shoot students and police officers on the University of Chicago.
Judge Susan Cox on Tuesday allowed Jabari Dean to look for a job and to leave his mother’s home in South Shore for more than his electrical engineering classes at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Dean, 21, was confined to home arrest while facing charges that, in November, he threatened in comments posted on the website Worldstarhiphop.com from his mother’s phone that he would kill 16 white students on the University of Chicago campus in retaliation for the shooting death of Laquan McDonald by Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke.
After his arrest, FBI agents and Dean's family said he had no way to carry out the threats he deleted five minutes after posting them on the site.
On Tuesday, Cox loosened Dean’s confinement to his mother’s home in South Shore, allowing him to leave the house from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“It’s to allow him to look for a job,” said Joseph Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
In January, Cox ordered Dean to tell any other colleges that he may apply to of the allegations against him.
Dean has not pleaded guilty or not guilty yet in the case and is awaiting the results of a mental health screening since first appearing before Cox on Nov. 30.
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