Threatening posters discovered in Cantor Warehouse
Threatening posters found at Warehouse
A series of posters were discovered in Syracuse University’s Nancy Cantor Warehouse on Thursday displaying threatening language and imagery.
The images contained pictures of what appears to be the Warehouse set on fire with the text “I am going to burn down the warehouse” in various fonts and text sizes surrounding the image along with the phrase, “I have hidden 38 gallons of gasoline on the 5th floor.”
The posters were found near a public elevator on the fifth floor of the building. While the posters themselves were supposedly for a class assignment, they were not meant to be publicly posted according to Christine Weber, Campus Safety and Emergency Management Systems communications manager. The Department of Public Safety, Syracuse Fire Department and FBI officials responded to the scene and searched the building located near downtown’s Armory Square.
School of Design director Emily Stokes-Rees said an email addressed to the School of Design community that the investigation turned up no continuing threat of danger and the incident does not reflect what the program encourages.
“Anyone in this community who uses their training and talent to create designs that spread fear and violence is not welcome,” Stokes-Rees said.
Environmental and interior design junior Isabella Couoh said she noticed two officers and a police canine walking around the building’s exterior Thursday morning while waiting for the bus after class.
“They told me that they were just doing training and not to be worried, so I honestly had no idea what was going on,” Couoh said.
Later in the day, Couoh said she was made aware of the situation after receiving several text messages from fellow students. Couoh said most people throughout the building seemed calm most of Thursday and unaware of the posters found in the warehouse.
“There wasn’t much panic because I don’t think people realized what was going on,” Couoh said.
According to Public Safety’s Weber, the student responsible for the posters has been referred to the Office of Community Standards and the situation is considered resolved.
With such a disturbing shock to the School of Design community, Stokes-Rees urged students to contact her and faculty members regarding the incident.
“My hope is that it will bring us closer together as a community that works collaboratively to design for positive social impact in everything we do.”
is the social media lead producer for The NewsHouse.
