Police arrest juvenile suspect for allegedly threatening 'ethnic cleansing' of black and Hispanic students in Charlottesville

Police arrested a 17-year-old male Friday who is accused of making racially charged threats online against minority students at Charlottesville High School earlier this week.

Wednesday's online threat contained "biased-based language targeting specific ethnic groups within Charlottesville High School," police said in a news release.

Officials closed all of the district's schools Thursday and Friday amid safety concerns for more than 4,500 students who attend Charlottesville City Schools in Virginia.

"The safety of our students and staff was the top priority for the department, the city, and the school district," Charlottesville Police Chief Rashall Brackney said in a statement.

What are the details?

Someone, who claimed to be a student Charlottesville High School, posted a threat on the website 4chan, WVIR-TV reported.

The threat reportedly instructed white students to stay home so there could be "ethnic cleansing" of black and Hispanic students, according to the news outlet.
Police have not confirmed whether the suspect is a student in the school district.

Authorities charged the teen with threats to commit serious bodily harm to persons on school property and harassment by computer.
No further details were provided about the suspect.

What did school officials say?

The district said in a statement on its website Thursday that hate and racism would not be tolerated:

We would like to acknowledge and condemn the fact that this threat was racially charged. We do not tolerate hate or racism. The entire staff and School Board stand in solidarity with our students of color — and with people who have been singled out for reasons such as religion or ethnicity or sexual identity in other vile threats made across the country or around the world. We are in this together, and a threat against one is a threat against all.

What else?

In August 2017, violence broke out when white nationalists and counterprotesters — members of Unite the Right clashed with members of Antifa and Black Lives Matter — at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.
One woman was killed and several others injured when a protester plowed his vehicle into a crowd of people.