The UTRGV Police Department sent a campuswide email today refuting a social media post circulating through the community about a terrorist threat against campus.
The public service announcement stated the screenshot originated last Thursday, and is continuously being shared on social media. However, it did not involve a threat to the UTRGV campus community.
“Basically, that post is related to a dating violence incident that we had,” UTRGV Police Chief Raul Munguia told The Rider earlier today. “And it just involved one couple and somehow that made it onto social media, and it got turned around into it being a threat to the entire campus, which it was not. It was never a threat to the entire campus.”
Munguia said the dating violence case was dealt with last week and an arrest was made.
“That person is actually still in jail,” he said. “And we didn’t put out any kind of timely warning because … there was no threat to the UTRGV community.”
Munguia said after the student reached out to campus police about her problems, police realized it was escalating to an abusive relationship and handled it accordingly. He said the student is now working with counselors.
“We take the safety of the UTRGV community, the faculty, staff [and] students very seriously,” Munguia said. “And we will move forward to make sure if we get any type of threat, to go ahead and address it.”
He also said there were several officers gathered on campus today due to a scheduled, advertised event, Lunch with a Cop, that was going on in the Quad in Edinburg.
Munguia said there was no ongoing threat on campus, at the moment of the interview.
“Just one post last week and this … just keeps going,” he said. “All I can say is, don’t believe everything you see on social media.”
