Third Missouri student charged with making threats on Yik Yak

MARSHALL – The Saline County Prosecutor’s Office charged an 18-year-old Missouri Valley College student Thursday with making a terroristic threat.

The prosecutor’s office charged Paris Lovett after he posted threats to the social media app Yik Yak.

The probable cause statement said an officer with the Missouri Valley College Department of Public Safety called the Marshall Police Department Wednesday around 12:11 p.m. about the threatening posts.

Detective Sgt. William McMellen contacted Yik Yak at 2:29 p.m. and made an emergency request for any information identifying the person who made the threats.

The following post was made: “We should’ve have been wiser and tried to help you sloppy European (expletive deleted). A second response was posted that said, “But it’s a new age and I can write my ancestors wrong and just start killing y’all off.” A third response said, “Inform them (expletive deleted) idc there’s so much hate in my heart you will never understand.”

McMellen said Yik Yak emailed him at 2:54 p.m. with the time of the post, the IP address and the telephone number.

McMellen said he went to the college to see if the sender was a student and found the phone number belonged to Lovett.

The probable cause statement said Lovett agreed to talk with police and told them he did not mean to offend anyone by his comments, and the comment he made was not to be taken literally.

“Mr. Lovett stated he is not against anyone and would not hurt a fly,” McMellen said in the probable cause statement. “Mr. Lovett stated he was truly sorry from the bottom of his heart.”

Lovett also said his comments were meant to be sarcastic.

This is the third time a Missouri college student has been charged for posting threats on the app Yik Yak. Hunter Park was charged after making threats to the University of Missouri. Connor Stottlemyre was charged after making threats at Norwest Missouri State University.