CHENEY, Wash. — Recent court documents reveal that multiple witnesses on campus heard 26-year-old Justin Hale use racial slurs and threaten to “shoot up” Eastern Washington University while on campus last Thursday.
On Oct. 19, EWU police reported that Hale was outside the Pence Union Building gathering signatures for a petition to ban gender inclusive bathrooms.
In court documents, victims on campus said that Hale began threatening multiple students and had used the “n-word.”
One victim said that Hale was wanting to fight her and began telling her that he “gang bangs” and “he’ll shoot up the school.”
As the conversation intensified, more students began listening to what was being said. One witness said they heard Hale say, “run my fade lil n***a… I’ll get my bros and we can have a shoot-out” as the victim was walking away from him.
Hale also got physical with the victim as he shoved her and called her a racial slur.
In the affidavit of facts, Hale told law enforcement that some students were “harassing him because they did not like some of the petitions that he was trying to get signatures for.” He denied making any threats about shooting the school or to anyone in the crowd.
Now that Hale is in custody, students on campus are relieved but some are nervous about what would happen if he was released. “If he got out, I would honestly be very scared that he would come back to campus, and I do not want that to happen,” EWU Junior Tina Thorne said.
Justin Hale made his first appearance in court today with a calm and confident demeanor as he blew a kiss towards the camera.
The prosecuting attorney stated that, “one witness allegedly described that [Hale] had a plan, if he wasn’t in custody he would have returned on Friday to shoot.”
Hale is being held on a $250,000 bond, his next court appearance will be Nov. 9.
