Background: News footage of St. Cloud State University (WCCO). Inset: Romello Lloyd (Stearns County Sheriff”s Office).
A Minnesota college student was arrested for making threats against a fraternity that rejected him as a member.
Romello Lloyd, 29, was taken into custody on Monday after being charged with two counts of making threats with violence. According to court documents reviewed by Law&Crime, officers from the St. Cloud Police Department spoke to an unnamed student who alerted the Public Safety department at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, Minnesota, that Lloyd was allegedly threatening to “shoot up a fraternity.”
The student was a member of the fraternity, and police said Lloyd was not accepted as a pledge.
Police wrote in the court documents that Lloyd approached the student from behind in a skyway on campus. Lloyd reportedly asked the student if he “sent someone to jump him,” referring to a purported incident that occurred three weeks prior. According to the documents, Lloyd told the student that he was rejected from the fraternity. He then allegedly told the student that he would kill the person who jumped him, saying, “If I find out who sent them, I will shoot them even if it is you.”
Lloyd allegedly told the student that he was “dangerous.”
According to police, Lloyd made previous statements indicating that he wanted others to know he could cause them harm, including that he owned a rifle and a handgun. Police wrote that during another incident, Lloyd mentioned a traffic light outside the fraternity house and said “they should play the Squid Games,” referring to the hit Netflix series in which desperate people living in a dystopian society play children’s games, including “Red Light, Green Light,” with deadly consequences in order to win money. Lloyd allegedly said that he would give the other person a firearm “so they could shoot anyone who moves.”
When police arrived on campus, they made contact with Lloyd while he was in class. After Lloyd denied making the threats, officers found a Ruger Mark IV handgun in his backpack loaded with 10 rounds of ammunition. A second full magazine with 22 cartridges was also found on him. Officers said they found a knife and “replica firearms.”
Police wrote that Lloyd had been found incompetent to stand trial in multiple cases including three charges of stalking, one of which was dismissed; the other two are listed as dormant. The finding disallowed Lloyd from possessing firearms.
Local CBS affiliate WCCO reported that the president of St. Cloud State University notified the campus community about the threat after Lloyd’s arrest. In an email, the president wrote that while law enforcement responded to a “credible threat,” Lloyd was not “wielding the gun openly in front of students.” The message stated that there was no longer a threat on campus.
Lloyd was charged with two felony counts of making threats with violence and two misdemeanor counts of possessing a firearm while incompetent or mentally ill. He is currently in custody at the Stearns County Jail, where he is being held on $1 million bond with conditions and $2 million bond without conditions. His next court appearance has not been listed as of Thursday.
