HYDE PARK — The man accused of threatening to go on a shooting rampage at the University of Chicago in 2015 will not be prosecuted for the threat, according to federal authorities.
Jabari R. Dean was arrested after he allegedly posted an online threat to target 16 white students and faculty at University of Chicago in response to the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald at the hands of Chicago Police. Dean, an engineering student at UIC at the time, said he would then turn his weapons on police before killing himself.
School officials shut down the campus for one day in November in response to the threat. Dean, 21, was arrested by the FBI on Nov. 30, the same day the campus was closed.
Dean had been charged with transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. He was released into the custody of his mother, a Greater Grand Crossing resident, until his trial began.
His house arrest was loosened in February, when a federal judge allowed Dean to leave the house during the day to look for a job.
But the trial never got started. Federal prosecutors on Wednesday agreed to defer the prosecution for a period of 18 months. If Dean adheres to the stipulations of the agreement, the charges will be dropped, according to federal court records.
The agreement will require Dean to perform 100 hours of community service, pass drug tests and comply with other requirements "similar to pretrial bond restrictions," according to the Chicago Tribune.
"... The court finds that the ends of justice are served by the continuance and outweigh the interests of the public and the defense in a speedy trial...." reads the agreement between Dean and federal prosecutors.
Dean's attorneys and his family have said that the teen had no means to carry out the threats, which his family classified as "silly, ignorant" ramblings.
In the comment, which Dean posted to the website worldstarhiphop.com, he allegedly threatened to come to campus heavily armed and kill 16 white male students or staff. The comment was deleted within 5 minutes, prosecutors said.
"I will be armed with a M-4 Carbine and 2 Desert Eagles all fully loaded," the online post states, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court. "I will execute approximately 16 white male students and or staff, which is the same number of time Mcdonald was killed. I then will die killing any number of white policemen that I can in the process. This is not a joke. I am to do my part to rid the world of the white devils."
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