SCSU Shooting Threat Suspect Charged; Loaded Gun Found in Class

(KNSI) — The suspect accused of threatening to shoot students at St. Cloud State University has been formally charged in Stearns County District Court.

According to the criminal complaint, the St. Cloud Police Department responded to campus on Monday for a report that a student had told campus public safety that Romello Lloyd threatened to shoot up a fraternity. The man told investigators Lloyd came up behind him in a skyway, tapped him on the shoulder and asked if he had sent someone to jump him. Lloyd added he had been jumped three weeks earlier and thought someone from the fraternity had done it after he was rejected as a pledge. Lloyd told the man, if he found out who sent them, “I will shoot them even if it is you,” adding he is “dangerous.” The man is a member of the fraternity Lloyd was rejected from.

Lloyd had previously told people at the fraternity that he owned a rifle and a handgun. He also referenced a stoplight outside the fraternity house and said they should “play the Squid Game,” saying he would give them a rifle and handgun to shoot anyone who moved.

Police and campus public safety found Lloyd in class. He denied making any statements about shooting anyone. A search of his backpack turned up a Ruger Mark IV handgun with a loaded magazine containing ten rounds. Officers also found a second magazine, 22 additional cartridges, replica firearms, and a knife.

Lloyd has been found incompetent to stand trial in three previous cases in Hennepin County and, based on those cases, is prohibited from owning or possessing a firearm or ammunition.

He has been charged with two counts of felony threats of violence and two gross misdemeanor counts of illegal possession of firearms or ammunition.

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