College Student Attempts Suicide At Eckerd After Making Terrorist Threats

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — An Eckerd College student is accused of threatening to shoot up the campus and to shoot the person he sent threatening voicemails and texts, a St. Petersburg police news release said.

Twenty-three-year-old Eli Altman Johnson faces charges of written or electronic threats to kill, do bodily injury, or conduct a mass shooting or an act of terrorism, police said.

Johnson took an undisclosed amount of pills before officers arrived at his dorm room.

A victim told St. Pete police Thursday at about 3 p.m. they had received threatening texts and voicemails from Johnson. Campus security stood watch as police drove to the Eckerd campus. Johnson took those pills as officers were on their way. He was medically released from a local hospital, and then had a psychiatric evaluation (Baker Acted) because of his suicide attempt, officers said.

Police said they did not find any weapons inside his dorm room. They did find out that Johnson bought a gun Thursday, and was in the three-day waiting period before he could possess it.

He was booked into the Pinellas County Jail at about 11 p.m., the department said.

Eckerd College released the following statement to Patch in an email:

Eckerd College remains committed to full cooperation with the St. Petersburg Police Department, the lead investigator on this case. We do not comment on active investigations. Resources have been made available to our community members who have been affected by this incident.