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Louisiana governor Jeff Landry outside the U.S. Supreme Court building in March.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images
A Louisiana State University student was arrested and jailed for allegedly posting an online threat targeting the state’s governor—after the politician brought a live tiger to a football game over the weekend.
The 21-year-old student posted Tuesday on X, “I am going to kill you @JeffLandry,” State Trooper Grant Auzenne wrote in an affidavit. He wrote that the Louisiana State Analytical and Fusion Exchange (LA-SAFE) gave him a photo of the post, which is still online.
Auzenne wrote that he went to the student’s apartment and spoke to the student, who said they were upset about Jeff Landry, the Republican governor, bringing the tiger to Saturday’s game against the University of Alabama. The student also said the post was a joke, Auzenne wrote, but the trooper wasn’t swayed.
Auzenne wrote that he put the student “into handcuffs that I checked for tightness and double locked.” The student is charged with threatening a public official and spent the night in jail before being released Wednesday, records from the East Baton Rouge Parish show.
An LSU spokesperson said in a statement that the university was aware of the student’s arrest.
“We take any behavior that threatens the safety of individuals or our community very seriously,” the official said. “LSU is committed to a respectful, responsible and safe environment for all.”
The LSU Tigers haven’t had an actual tiger on the sidelines for almost a decade, but Landry, whom Louisianans elected last year, sought to revive the tradition—one of multiple forays into higher education for the new governor.
Earlier this year, he signed legislation requiring a copy of the Ten Commandments, specifically from the King James Bible, to be displayed in every classroom in Louisiana’s public colleges, universities and trade schools, in addition to its K-12 public schools. A federal judge blocked the law Tuesday.
In September, Landry began pushing LSU to bring its 8-year-old tiger, Mike VII, to football games, the Louisiana Illuminator reported. The university stopped the practice in 2015 amid concerns about the animal’s welfare. LSU declined Landry’s request.
So instead, Landry arranged for another tiger to attend the Nov. 9 game against the University of Alabama, bringing in a big cat named Omar Bradley from Florida. The Advocate reported that Omar reclined in Mike’s gold-and-purple cage. (His office said no taxpayer money was used for the stunt, Fox News reported.)
@sports.illustrated The tiger, which is different than the one that lives on LSU’s campus, was brought to the stadium per the request of Gov. Jeff Landry 🐅 (via @Piper Hutchinson, Louisiana Illuminator) #lsu #tiger #mascot #cfb #college #football #louisiana ♬ original sound - Sports Illustrated
“It’s about tradition,” Landry said Monday, according to The Advocate. “At the end of the day, these woke people have tried to take tradition out of this country. It’s tradition that built this country.”
The governor’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment Wednesday about the student’s arrest.
Landry told Fox News before the game that “our hope is that maybe we can get this tiger to roar a couple of times and that’ll indicate how many touchdowns we’ll have and it’ll be more than Alabama.”
Alabama, which did not bring a live elephant, nonetheless trampled LSU 42 to 13. Afterward, The Advocate reported that Landry told a crowd at an event, “Our live tiger, unfortunately, disappointingly, was the only tiger who showed up Saturday. I’m sorry.” Landry said later he was making a joke.
