School Shooting Threats On Twitter Lead To Arrest In Oregon

CORVALLIS, OR — Oregon State Police arrested a Corvallis man Tuesday after learning he'd made threats of violence toward Oregon State University, its faculty and students via his Twitter account — effectively duplicating the same crime for which he was convicted one year ago, nearly to the day, according to Benton County's Chief Deputy District Attorney Ryan Joslin.

Christopher Adam Strahan, 22, was taken to the Benton County Correctional Facility and charged with disorderly conduct. His bail is set at $12,500.

Shortly before 12:30 p.m. Feb. 27, OSP Troopers working with Oregon State University campus police were told Strahan was making threats of violence through his Twitter account, under username @hardbellydorm, stating he was training to shoot up OSU by playing Rockstar video game Grand Theft Auto, and that "I'm going to kill a lot of people and tweet it."

Immediate and frenzied responses to his tweets came from numerous Twitter users, most of whom tagged both Oregon State and Corvallis police as well as Oregon State University officials.

Law enforcement and public safety officials from OSP, the FBI, the OSU Department of Public Safety, Corvallis Police Department, and the Benton County Mental Health Department all quickly worked together to identify and locate Strahan, arresting him outside a residence in Corvallis around 2:30 p.m.

One year ago, on Feb. 17, 2017, Strahan was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after making threats of "shooting up" the OSU campus.

Using a now-defunct Twitter account, Strahan posted a flurry of tweets shortly before 1 p.m., which included statements such as, "I'm ready to shoot up campus the entire campus," "I'm ready to go to jail then back to prison everybody is deserving death," and "…I'll just kill everyone walk into the building and unload."

Many of Strahan's tweets, both then and now, contain language inappropriate for publication but nevertheless hammer home his thoughts on school shootings and mass, public violence.

(Strahan was reportedly a student in OSU's Food Science program at the time of his 2017 threats. Patch was unable to verify whether he's currently a student at the university.)

A search of Strahan's apartment in 2017 did not turn up any weapons, though Strahan told investigators he'd tried to purchase a Glock 30 MOS about one month prior to making his threats.

(Whether Strahan currently owns any weapons is still part of the ongoing investigation and could not be discussed by Joslin.)

In 2017, Strahan admitted he was denied the Glock purchase due to a pending court case that stemmed from a domestic violence incident involving his father. He also told investigators he'd been learning a lot about University of California, Santa Barbara, shooter Elliot Rodger, who on May 23, 2014, killed six people and injured 14 others before killing himself.

During his subsequent police interviews, Strahan told investigators he made "outlandish" and "nasty" comments that promote violence due to his own social problems.

Strahan was convicted March 15, 2017, and sentenced to 20 days in jail and 36 months of bench probation.

Joslin told Patch on Wednesday that prosecutors more or less have their hands tied with regard to how they can charge these types of crimes until laws change that allow harsher punishments for individuals who make threats of violence toward schools. Current laws in Oregon typically allow prosecutors to only seek convictions for disorderly conduct, harassment, and/or menacing when these kinds of threats are made.

Incidentally, Oregon Sen. Tim Knopp on Monday introduced to a broad-sweeping public safety senate bill an amendment that would make it a felony to threaten a school with mass violence. Senate Bill 1543 is still being discussed by legislators.

"In the days after the horrific events at Parkland High School in Florida, Oregon experienced an upswell of violent, terroristic threats targeting schools and communities across the state," Knopp said in a statement. "Oregon's district attorneys are constrained by current law that fails to take into account the unique nature of threats against schools and other public gathering places. Creating a new statute to address these circumstances will go a long way in deterring future threats and punishing individuals (who) threaten the well-being of our kids, families, and communities."

Two incidents recently reported in Woodburn and, coincidentally, Corvallis both touch on Knopp's concerns:

• A 14-year-old female student at Linus Pauling Middle School in Corvallis was arrested Feb. 22 and charged with disorderly conduct and initiating a false report after she reportedly made threats of violence against another student via the Snapchat social media app.
• A 17-year-old boy was arrested the following day, Feb. 23, after he reportedly made social media threats against Gervais High School — which forced police and school officials to place the high school into temporary lockdown.

See also:

Should Threatening A School Be A Felony? Oregon Senator Says Yes

• Sen. Tim Knopp introduced to a public safety bill an amendment that would make threats of violence against a school a felony crime.

Image via Oregon State Police