Three University of South Alabama students have been charged with threatening Donald Trump ahead of a rally at the campus, after the FBI identified alleged threats made on social media.
Amare Woods, Cameron Lewis and Kayla Smith were taken into custody on Friday and remain held ahead of detention hearings scheduled for Monday.
The FBI said the alleged threats were made independently and were uncovered during an intelligence search of social media on September 29.
Federal documents allege that Woods wrote on TikTok on September 27 that the president “gotta die bro”.
Lewis, a biology major, is accused of writing on September 26 that “n****s gon remember the University of South Alabama the same way they remember Utah Valley University” — an apparent reference to the place where Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
He is also alleged to have advocated “Q50 … THAT N****”, a reference to the fatal shooting of Mikquale Cooper, also known as Bloodhound Q50.
Smith allegedly replied to a TikTok about Mr Trump’s forthcoming appearance by writing, “We only got one chance let’s take it,” alongside an image of someone appearing to hold a firearm.
Woods’s lawyer, Jason Darley, said his client was “a very young, very small kid” and described him as the furthest removed from any defendant he had represented in federal court during his 21-year career.
The three students are due to appear in court on Monday for hearings to determine whether they will remain in custody.
