A white supremacist manifesto reportedly authored by the suspect behind the Christchurch, New Zealand, mass shooting was believed to be electronically distributed to students at Syracuse University early Tuesday — the latest in a series of racist episodes to rock the campus.
The university’s Department of Public Safety said it was investigating reports of students at a campus library receiving the document on their cellphones via an electronic file transfer service called AirDrop.
Officials noted the reports haven’t been confirmed and there is “no specific threat” to the university. But they said they’ve alerted the FBI, state police and the Syracuse Police Department.
The school newspaper, the Daily Orange, reported the alleged manifesto is the same 74-page document written by Muslim-hating Brenton Tarrant, who’s accused of slaughtering 49 people at two New Zealand mosques in March.
There have been 11 reported hate crimes at Syracuse University since Nov. 7, the Daily Orange said.
The racist and anti-Semitic incidents led the university on Sunday to suspend all fraternity life.
The DPS had said a black female student reported “being verbally harassed” Saturday night by a group yelling a racial epithet as she walked by.
Following Tuesday’s incident, Gov. Andrew Cuomo called on the university’s board of trustees to hire an outside monitor to investigate the “surge of campus hate crimes.”
“The hateful activities at Syracuse University are most disturbing, not only to the Syracuse University community, but to the greater community of New York,” Cuomo said in a press release.
“That these actions should happen on the campus of a leading New York university makes this situation even worse.”
Cuomo was also critical of chancellor Kent Syverud’s handling of the incidents and said, “They have not been handled in a manner that reflects this state’s aggressive opposition to such odious, reckless, reprehensible behavior.”