Man threatens students, staff at Eastern Arizona College
Jul 30, 2013, 2:28 PM | Updated: 3:40 pm
A man who walked onto an Arizona college campus making threats and derogatory comments about Catholics and Mormons may be the same man who has been in Colorado, describing himself “an Islamic jihadist.”
Authorities in Colorado have determined that the man in the Colorado incident is the same man, Christopher Craig, who had been arrested after making a scene at Eastern Arizona College.
Craig was arrested July 10 in Thatcher. He had walked into a classroom waving a Bible and insulting Mormons and Catholics until he was asked to leave, said Eastern Arizona College spokesman Todd Haynie.
Haynie said that Craig, a former University of Northern Colorado basketball coach, also went into the administration office and confronted a counselor. When she confirmed she was Mormon, he told her “that Mormons would be destroyed” in two weeks, Haynie said.
Craig was arrested for disorderly conduct, and intimidation and interruption of an educational facility. He was released from the Graham County Jail on July 15 after the County Attorney’s Office decided not to file charges. The Graham County Attorney’s Office could not be reached for comment.
Eight days after Craig’s release in Arizona, police in Steamboat Springs, Colo., got a 911 call that a man was driving around a parking lot making his jihadist comments.
The Denver Channel reported that the man claimed that “in a couple of weeks everyone will know who I am.”
Colorado police said that Craig hasn’t committed a crime, so he can’t be arrested, but the FBI and the Colorado Information Analysis Center, which evaluates terrorism threats, have been notified.
Craig is reportedly driving a white 2003 Honda Accord, with spray-painted words on the hood and rear bumper. Some of the writings include Revelations 14:7 from the Bible, which states “He said with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgement has come; worship him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.”
KOSA.com in Texas reported that Craig coached the last two years at Midland College but resigned in March.
