Man arrested with gun at UK had sent threatening tweets, police say

The man who was arrested Monday for bringing a gun into the University of Kentucky’s Buell Armory had previously sent threatening tweets to university ROTC members and a female student, according to his arrest citation.

Diontre Davis, who was quickly arrested Monday on charges of carrying a concealed weapon and criminal trespassing, allegedly created four separate Twitter accounts and sent threatening posts and direct messages to a female student at UK whom he knew.

In one of the messages, Davis wrote that the woman “still gone die for being a bitch. I’m taking her with me. She deserves to die a slow & painful death #forrealthistime,” according to the citation.

He also sent a message from another account and said he has to kill the woman for hurting and ruining his life, according to the citation, and another where Davis stated “she deserves everything she gets. I don’t care if I burn in hell.”

In addition to tweets to the woman, he threatened two friends of the woman, who were in the ROTC program at UK, according to court documents. UK ROTC had planned to cancel events on campus that involved cadets because they did not want their members to be in danger of Davis if he came to Lexington, documents show.

Warrants were also served Monday for two counts of disorderly conduct and a count of terroristic conduct, which Lexington police determined happened in September and October of 2016.

Davis pleaded not guilty Tuesday to those charges, as well as the charges of trespassing and carrying a concealed deadly weapon.

Davis, 23, lives in Fort Worth, Texas.

According to court documents, Davis talked with UK police by phone in October 2016 and admitted that he posted the tweets in anger but that he didn’t plan to carry out his threats. Davis told police that he threatened the woman because he was being harassed and followed by friends of hers.

In some of the messages sent by Davis on Twitter, he mentioned Ulysses S. Davis, a former UK employee who was arrested in 1986 after wounding two men in a shooting on UK’s campus. Police determined that Ulysses is Diontre’s uncle.

Ulysses S. Davis was angry that he was fired from UK, and he held police at bay for 11 hours with a sword, a pistol, a shotgun and a rifle and while wearing a ninja costume. He held one of his former supervisors hostage for three hours.

UK police had been tracking and investigating Diontre Davis since his threats to the woman, according to UK Police Chief Joe Monroe.

It was too early to know Monday whether Davis intended to use the gun on campus, Monroe said.

When he showed up Monday at Kentucky’s Buell Armory, an employee saw that he had a gun. UK officers arrvied within 90 seconds and found Davis.

This story was originally published November 28, 2017 at 10:54 AM with the headline "Man arrested with gun at UK had sent threatening tweets, police say."