By The Daily Caller (U.S.) | Created at 2026-10-04 17:51:30 | Updated at 2026-10-04 18:31:06
54 minutes ago
Three University of South Alabama students landed in federal custody over social media posts threatening President Donald Trump just hours before he rallied supporters on their campus.
Amare Jemal Woods, Cameron Lamark Lewis and Kayla Leaann Smith each face a federal count of threatening the president following their Friday arrests, according to 1819 News. Investigators treated the cases as unconnected rather than a coordinated plan, the outlet reported.
Woods, a freshman studying aerospace engineering, allegedly left the comment “he gotta die bro” beneath a TikTok video about the president’s campus stop, 1819 News reported citing FBI affidavit. (RELATED: Charlie Kirk Assassination Report Examines Security Failures At Utah Valley University)
Smith, an elementary education major, allegedly answered a different TikTok about the visit by writing, “We only got one chance let’s take it,” then posted an image of a person imitating someone holding a gun, according to the affidavit.
JUST IN: 3 students arrested for threats toward President Trump, University of South Alabama confirms https://t.co/hnPySk9Qer
— WKRG (@WKRG) October 2, 2026Lewis allegedly wrote on X that “niggas gon remember the University of South Alabama the same way they remember Utah Valley University,” according to the affidavit. A second post from Lewis called for a killing, according to investigators.
Utah Valley University was the site where conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot last year.
Federal agents found the messages while scanning social media before Trump’s Oct. 2 appearance, relying on emergency disclosure requests and campus police to tie the accounts to the students, according to Fox News.
Woods’s attorney, Jason Darley, rejected any suggestion that his client posed a real danger. “If this kid is a threat, then everybody pecking on a keyboard is a threat,” Darley told FOX10. A conviction carries up to five years in prison.
The three remained jailed ahead of detention hearings scheduled for Monday afternoon, according to Fox News.
Their arrests came alongside other violent remarks that 1819 News located online before the rally, including a protest group chat where a participant identified as Roman Fulford wrote, “HELP ME RISE UP TO BLOW UP TRUMP.” None of those posts have been named by authorities as the basis for the charges, according to 1819 News.
The Republican National Committee rented the Mitchell Center for the event, which the school did not sponsor, according to Fox News. Trump spoke Friday evening as planned, telling the crowd, “It sort of all began here.”
The university condemned the alleged threats. “The University of South Alabama unequivocally condemns any form of threats directed at elected officials or any individual with whom we disagree,” the school said in a statement, according to 1819 News.
