Dallas News: A UT-Arlington student who claimed she was threatened at gunpoint on campus this week admitted Friday that she’d lied, a university spokeswoman said. The student told police she hadn’t even been at the school the day she said the incident occurred.
UT-Arlington had been investigating the complaint with Arlington, Denton and University of North Texas police, school spokeswoman Kristin Sullivan said.
Officials have not released the student’s name, and it was unclear Friday night whether she would be charged with filing a false police report. The student could not be reached for comment.
University President Vistasp M. Karbhari said in a written statement that he appreciated the police efforts in the case. “We take these issues very seriously,” he said. “The safety and security of all UT Arlington students, faculty and staff is our utmost concern.”
The university had issued an alert Friday that the student told police she had been followed six miles by a man in a pickup before she reached the campus. The man who followed her was driving a white Ford pickup with a Texas flag on the antenna.
When the student parked her car about 9:15 a.m. in Lot 49 at South Cooper and West Mitchell streets, she said, the suspect got out of his truck, yelled a threat and pointed a gun at her. Afterward, the man left the scene.
The suspect was described as a white man in his mid-30s wearing a camouflage baseball cap, a short-sleeve blue shirt and bluejeans. He also wore a black bracelet and a wooden bead bracelet on one wrist.
The student also posted on social media that the man might have targeted her because she is Muslim. In a Facebook post, she referred to the killings of three Muslim students this week in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Chapel Hill police say a long-running parking dispute between neighbors motivated 46-year-old Craig Stephen Hicks to kill Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23; his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21; and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, at a condominium complex near the University of North Carolina campus.
A Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization has asked authorities to address speculation about possible religious bias in the Chapel Hill slayings.
DCG