LEXINGTON, Ky. _ A man has been arrested in connection with threatening Twitter messages directed at a Kentucky high school over University of Louisville football coaching candidate Jeff Brohm staying at Purdue, according to the St. Matthews police and media reports.
Because of the threats, Trinity High School, where Brohm graduated in 1989, canceled Thursday classes a few hours after Brohm declined an offer to be Louisville's head football coach Wednesday.
Threats were made on Twitter using words such as "gas cans" and "matches," St. Matthews Assistant Police Chief Tony Cobaugh said Thursday morning. Officers were put on a 24-hour patrol of the high school Wednesday night, he added.
The Courier-Journal reported a Twitter user wrote before noon Wednesday, "If Jeff Brohm doesn't come, we burn down Trinity," and "If you see a man running down Frankfort with a gas can and wild look in his eye, its me." Subsequently, the user's account was made private, according to the Courier-Journal.
Cobaugh asked Thursday for the person who identifies themselves as "Proud Clarion" to come forward.
Thor Wiljanen, 29, was charged Thursday with felony terroristic threatening, according to Louisville news station WDRB.
Mark Ennis, a radio host for 93.9 The Ville, said the tweets in question were "obvious sarcasm" and called it an "absurd overreaction" for Trinity to cancel school.
Others have also called the tweets sarcasm, but Cobaugh said it doesn't matter if the tweets were real threats.
"In today's world ... we have no choice but to take threats like this seriously, especially when it involves a school within our own community," Cobaugh said.
Louisville police and the FBI assisted St. Matthews Police with the investigation.
