'Play the Squid Games': 29-year-old dying to be a pledge threatened to kill college fraternity members after he was rejected, police say
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Background: News footage of St. Cloud State University (WCCO). Inset: Romello Lloyd (Stearns County Sheriff”s Office).

A college student from Minnesota has been arrested following allegations of threatening a fraternity that turned down his membership application.

The suspect, 29-year-old Romello Lloyd, was apprehended on Monday, facing charges of making violent threats on two separate counts. According to documents procured by Law&Crime, law enforcement officials from the St. Cloud Police Department were alerted by an unnamed student. The student had informed St. Cloud State University’s Public Safety department about Lloyd’s alleged threats to “shoot up a fraternity” after being denied membership.

The student who reported the threat is a fraternity member, while Lloyd did not make it through the pledge process, as stated by the police.

In the court filings, it is detailed that Lloyd confronted the student in a campus skyway. During this encounter, Lloyd inquired if the student had orchestrated an attack against him, referring to an incident that supposedly happened three weeks earlier. Court papers state that Lloyd expressed his anger over being rejected by the fraternity and allegedly threatened the student, saying he would retaliate against whoever was responsible for the previous incident, even if it was the student himself, declaring, “If I find out who sent them, I will shoot them even if it is you.”

Lloyd also allegedly warned the student about his “dangerous” nature.

According to police, Lloyd made previous statements indicating that he wanted others to know he could cause them harm, including that he owned a rifle and a handgun. Police wrote that during another incident, Lloyd mentioned a traffic light outside the fraternity house and said “they should play the Squid Games,” referring to the hit Netflix series in which desperate people living in a dystopian society play children’s games, including “Red Light, Green Light,” with deadly consequences in order to win money. Lloyd allegedly said that he would give the other person a firearm “so they could shoot anyone who moves.”

Upon their arrival at the university, officers confronted Lloyd while he was attending class. Despite Lloyd’s denial of any threats, a search revealed a loaded Ruger Mark IV handgun with 10 rounds in his possession. Additionally, he was carrying a second magazine with 22 bullets, along with a knife and what police described as “replica firearms.”

Police wrote that Lloyd had been found incompetent to stand trial in multiple cases including three charges of stalking, one of which was dismissed; the other two are listed as dormant. The finding disallowed Lloyd from possessing firearms.

Local CBS affiliate WCCO reported that the president of St. Cloud State University notified the campus community about the threat after Lloyd’s arrest. In an email, the president wrote that while law enforcement responded to a “credible threat,” Lloyd was not “wielding the gun openly in front of students.” The message stated that there was no longer a threat on campus.

Lloyd was charged with two felony counts of making threats with violence and two misdemeanor counts of possessing a firearm while incompetent or mentally ill. He is currently in custody at the Stearns County Jail, where he is being held on $1 million bond with conditions and $2 million bond without conditions. His next court appearance has not been listed as of Thursday.

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