LOWELL — A volunteer radio host for UMass Lowell’s WUML radio station has resigned after allegedly making a threatening comment toward Vice President JD Vance on social media.
The person behind the account with the handle hanslopez.bsky.social came under fire after leaving the comment, “It’s simple, we kill JD Vance,” under another Bluesky user’s post which read, “JD VANCE THINKS BRITAIN & FRANCE ARE AMERICAS [sic] LIKELY ENEMIES,” according to reporting from Fox News.
The Bluesky account attached to that handle appears to have been suspended as of Monday evening. A LinkedIn account under the name Hansel Lopez remained open, listing a job as a music director and DJ for WUML from May 2010 to the present.
The Secret Service told Fox News in a statement it was aware of the comments made by the WUML host.
WUML was founded in 1952 as a noncommercial FM radio station funded by UMass Lowell and managed by student members and broadcast locally and online.
In a statement provided to The Sun, UMass Lowell said it contacted the authorities after learning of the post on Jan. 2. The school said the person who posted the comment “was an alumni volunteer contributor to the station who is not a current student.”
“UMass Lowell police promptly coordinated with the FBI, Secret Service and Haverhill police the same day to ensure an appropriate response,” UMass Lowell said in the statement. “Contact was made with the individual in question, and the necessary assessments were conducted in collaboration with federal partners. Authorities confirmed there was no immediate threat.
“UMass Lowell takes seriously any threat of violence involving our community,” the statement continued. “Statements such as the post in question are inconsistent with the values of our democracy and our university. The individual in question has since resigned from his volunteer role at WUML and removed the post from his Bluesky account.”