"Exercise extreme precaution": Springfield university nixes events over anti-Haitian shooting threat
Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio has cancelled all planned on-campus activities for Sunday, after receiving a shooting threat targeted at Haitian immigrants.
"Wittenberg University is currently taking extreme precautions following an email sent Saturday, Sept. 14, that threatened a potential shooting on-campus," the school of nearly 1300 students shared. "The message targeted Haitian members of our community."
The school said that local police have increased patrols on-campus due to the threat of an attack. It's the latest in a string of threats against local government offices, hospitals and businesses in the Ohio town, all stemming from anti-immigrant rhetoric from Republican politicians.
The tense week in Springfield began with a rumor, circulated on Facebook, that recent Haitian immigrants to the area were eating local pets. That debunked story was circulated by right-wing operatives like Charlie Kirk and vice presidential nominee JD Vance.
The completely unsubstantiated claim was countered by local police, who have no record of any incidents involving pets being eaten. However, the truth couldn't stand up to former president Donald Trump yelling the story into a metaphorical megaphone at the presidential debates earlier this week.
Trump claimed that Haitian immigrants to Springfield were "eating the dogs" and "eating the cats" in an incoherent ramble from ABC's debate stage and has doubled down on that idea in recent days, even when he's been told that lie is putting people at risk. President Joe Biden has repeatedly countered the bigoted smears from Trump and the GOP, calling the rumors "simply wrong."
"So many Americans, like [Press Secretary] Karine [Jean-Pierre], as you point out, is a proud Haitian American, a community that’s under attack in our country right now. It’s simply wrong,” Biden said in a press conference outside the White House on Friday. “This has to stop, what he’s doing. It has to stop.”