Man accused of online threats during MU protests gets probation

UPDATE 2:39:Judge Kevin Crane sentenced Hunter Park to probation on a five-year suspended sentence Thursday for making terroristic threats. Park is not allowed to have guns and needs special permission by probation and parole to use the internet.

If Park violates any of these terms or commits another crime, he will carry out the full three-year prison sentence.

Thursday’s courtroom was packed with dozens of people representing both sides. After his punishment was announced, some in the crowd yelled out, “wrong!” Park’s attorney Jeff Hilbrenner admitted what Park did was both racist and sophomoric, but said he was not capable of carrying out the threat. Park did not have a car or weapon while going to school in Rolla, and only claimed to have held a gun once in his life.

Assistant Prosecutor Brouck Jacobs read other posts attributed to Park from the the November threats that happened on the “anonymous” social media app Yik-Yak. One post read, “I pray to the Columbine shooters for someone to shoot up Mizzou’s campus tomorrow.” Another, “Going to start a new frat on campus, Kappa Kappa Kappa. No ‘n-words’ allowed,” Jacobs read, self-editing the racial slur primarily used for black people.

Dozens of people both wrote letters to Judge Crane and showed up in court to support Park, originally from Lake St. Louis. Hilbrenner spoke about his tutoring of others while in college, and his continued support of his high school’s robotics team after graduation. Describing an intelligent, shy person, Hilbrenner said he did not believe Park actually harbored racist feelings, citing his involvement on an international youth soccer team in which Park, as white person, was a minority.

“I believe that he got caught up in the whirlwind of what was going on in Missouri last fall,” Hilbrenner said. “He got online, got in debates, and that kept escalating and escalating, worse and worse things. What he said online was terrible. I promise you he regrets it.”

Several members of Race Matters, Friends attended Thursday’s sentencing. Rachel Taylor and Traci Wilson-Kleekamp said they were shocked to hear some of the other posts Park made.

“It was a depth of hate and extremely explicit hate that I wasn’t prepared for that day,” Taylor said.

Both had hoped for a prison sentence for Park, in part to serve as a deterrence for others to make such “racist death threats.” While many people wrote letters to the judge and prosecutor’s office regarding the case, WIlson-Kleekamp said she was disappointed Jacobs did not read any of those. She felt the prosecution did not capture the emotion of that week well, given the fear she saw in her students as an MU employee.

“I think it was important that he read those statements, but [Jacobs} just wasn’t aggressive about it,” Wilson-Kleekamp said.

Jacobs said while he asked for a prison sentence, he was satisfied that Judge Crane gave Park a suspended execution of sentence. If park completes his five-year probation term, he will still be considered a felon, making it illegal for him to have a gun.

(Editor’s note, 6/16. 11:55 p.m.: An earlier version of the update said Park will serve a three-year suspended sentence. His probation term will last five years. If he violates his probation, he will begin to serve a three-year prison sentence.)

ORIGINAL: The man accused of making online threats amid protests at Mizzou last fall was scheduled for sentencing Thursday.

Hunter Park was set to stand trial in May for making a terrorist threat, but instead pleaded guilty back in April.

Park is a University of Missouri-Rolla student. Investigators say he posted threats anonymously on Yik-Yak, a chat app that allows for anonymous posting.

Concerns over the threats prompted some businesses near campus to close for a day. The threats included language reminiscent of a deadly shooting at a college in southwest Oregon, which happened a month prior.

Boone County Assistant Prosecutor Brouck Jacobs told ABC 17 News he will recommend a three-year prison sentence for Park. The 19-year-old, who has no prior criminal record, will be sentenced by Judge Kevin Crane Thursday. Jacobs said he also opposed probation for Park.

“The facts of the case, I don’t think merit probation,” Jacobs said.

University of Missouri Police traveled to Rolla early on November 11 to investigate posts on Yik Yak that implied shooting black students on Mizzou’s campus, a day after protests over a lack of diversity and response to racially-charged incidents on MU’s campus became national news.

Park agreed with the officers’ characterization of the posts as “saber-rattling,” according to the probable cause statement, which included shooting “every black person I see.”

Investigators also questioned him about another posts similarity to things written by Christopher Harper-Mercer, the suspected shooter at Umpqua Community College on October 1, 2015, in which Park said he had a “deep interest” in the topic.