In 1986, gunman dressed as ninja shut down UK. How he’s related to man arrested on campus Monday.

More than 30 years ago, a man dressed as a ninja sprayed the University of Kentucky campus with gunfire. On Monday, his nephew was arrested on UK’s campus after concealing a gun of his own, police said.

Before his arrest Monday, Diontre Davis tweeted about his uncle Ulysses Davis, who injured two people and held one of them hostage in a shooting that shut down much of campus in 1986.

Diontre knows well about his uncle, and in threatening tweets he sent to UK students, he said “better research Ulysses S Davis Lexington KY! ... I’m not bullshittin with the gunplay,” according to court documents.

His uncle, a former UK custodian, was angry after being fired from his job five months before the shooting, according to Herald-Leader articles at the time. A fight with a fellow employee led to him being fired.

Here’s what happened on Dec 10, 1986, at UK, according to Herald-Leader coverage:

Ulysses Davis was armed with a semiautomatic rifle, an automatic pistol, a shotgun and a 40-inch Samurai sword when he was spotted on campus about 6 a.m.

Walter Skiba, UK’s acting police chief, who responded to a call about a man on campus with a weapon spotted Davis and ordered him to stop. Instead, Davis opened fire and ran past the Administration Building toward the service building.

UK police and a Lexington police officer returned fire but didn’t strike Davis.

He entered the service building and shot one man with the shotgun. When Davis entered the office of the assistant superintendent of custodial services, he opened fire at the floor “to scare him.” That caused bits of concrete debris and shrapnel to hit the assistant superintendent’s left eye. Davis kept him hostage for three hours.

Davis shot from inside the service building toward the UK physical plant department trucks and vans parked nearby, a witness who saw the shootings said. He had shot at least 50 rounds by 9 a.m.

Police negotiators had been in telephone contact with Davis since 7:20 a.m. and later with face-to-face contact when he moved to an adjoining loading bay.

As time progressed, police became more concerned about the harm Davis could do to himself rather than to others.

At 5 p.m., he threatened suicide while on the phone, and he clutched his sword with his guns at his feet. When he did that, fire department crews turned on their powerful water hose and “plastered him against the wall.”

He was arrested and was later charged with assault, wanton endangerment and attempted murder.

According to a 2000 Herald-Leader article, Ulysses Davis was serving 20 years in prison for the UK shooting.

Last year, his nephew, Diontre Davis, posted messages to Twitter saying that he would “shoot it out with the police,” much like his uncle did in 1986.

Diontre Davis is now in jail, charged with carrying a concealed deadly weapon, criminal trespassing, disorderly conduct and terroristic threatening.

This story was originally published November 28, 2017 at 1:01 PM with the headline "In 1986, gunman dressed as ninja shut down UK. How he’s related to man arrested on campus Monday.."