A Suicide, Racist Chats: Inside Colo. Teens' 'Fourth Reich'

Student reportedly said chat group was 'funny'
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 12, 2016 2:05 PM CDT
A Suicide, Racist Chats: Inside Colo. Teens' 'Fourth Reich'
A phone shows the Facebook Messenger app icon.   (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

A student at Colorado's Boulder Preparatory school committed suicide last month "to show his allegiance to the Nazi party and the killing of Jewish people," according to a police report. The shocking revelations don't end there. Before he died, the student known online as "The Fuhrer" started a Nazi-themed chat group and instructed members to recruit others so they could complete their "mission," police say. In total, authorities say 15 students from six area schools—including five now expelled from Boulder Prep—communicated via the "4th Reich's Official Group Chat" on Facebook, where individuals used military titles associated with Nazi Germany and spoke about killing black Americans and Jewish people, reports the Boulder Daily Camera.

"You can hang Jews on trees, shoot them right in the knees. Gas as many as you please," one message read, according to police. Students also mentioned "the Final Solution" and "white power." A rep for Boulder Valley High says officials took "appropriate responsive action" with its students involved in the group—brought to light after a parent complained—but it isn't clear if they were expelled. Authorities say they aren't pressing charges against the students because there is "no evidence or documentation to support there being any credible threat." The group's "second-in-command" reportedly said "the whole thing was 'funny' and he would not actually ever do any of those things," according to a police report. (More Colorado stories.)

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