Matthew Christopher Harris, 31, posted the videos and 800-page manifesto making “specific threats” to people in the university’s philosophy department, resulting in the school’s decision to cancel in-person classes on Tuesday, authorities said.
Authorities arrested Harris without incident after a standoff at his Boulder, Colorado home.
The Boulder Police Department began an investigation soon after receiving the threatening emails and an 800-page manifesto from UCLA. The school’s police department tracked Harris to Boulder and reached out to law enforcement there.
“Upon reviewing parts of the manifesto, we identified thousands of references to violence, stating things such as killing, death, murder, shootings, bombs, schoolyard massacre in Boulder, and phrases like burn and attack boulder outside of the university,” said Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold at a news conference.
“The investigation also revealed that the male had attempted to buy an unknown handgun at a store located in Jefferson County on November 2nd, he was denied this purchase,” Herold added.
Police evacuated nearby schools, residents, and businesses, and issued a shelter-in-place to 65 homes near the apartment complex where Harris was holed up, officials said. A crisis intervention team assisted with Harris’ surrender.
UCLA’s administrative vice chancellor Michael J. Beck released a statement that read, in part:
“I am greatly relieved to share that law enforcement officers in Colorado have taken into custody the individual who made threats against some members of our UCLA community yesterday. While we will continue with our plans to keep instruction remote today, with this development, we will return to in-person instruction tomorrow.”
Harris was placed on leave from UCLA last year and a female University of California, Irvine philosophy professor was granted a restraining order against him after he sent emails to his mother threatening to “hunt” the professor and “put bullets in her skull.” Harris’ mother alerted the woman.
Harris came to UCLA after completing his dissertation, “Continents in Cognition,” at Duke University in 2019. Duke is where he first met the woman who was the subject of the restraining order. They had “minimal contact” but he reached out to her to discuss career advice in September 2020 because he had recently moved to Los Angeles, according to the court documents.
Harris allegedly “began an aggressive campaign” of text messages and emails to the woman, leading her to fear for her safety. She told him to stop contacting her in March 2021.
Harris was being held in Colorado on state charges and federal charges may be pursued. It wasn’t immediately known if Harris had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf.
UCLA announced late Monday that all classes for Tuesday were going to be 100% remote after threats were made toward members of the university’s philosophy department.
Students say Harris sent an email to his former philosophy department threatening to hurt faculty and staff.
Harris posted hundreds of videos online Monday, including one showing video of the mass shooting in Las Vegas and the massacre at Columbine High School.
Students who had Harris as a professor say the trouble began last year and exploded Monday as news of his latest threats spread on social media.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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