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Mother Of Threat Suspect Makes Emotional Plea

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The mother of a man accused of making a threat against a local college campus on Twitter is making an emotional plea.

Michael Mollett, a former student at Penn State Beaver, allegedly referenced the Virginia Tech shootings in the suspected threat.

State police announced late Friday that a warrant has been issued for Mollett.

"Campus police received information that a former student posted a threat referencing Virginia Tech on Twitter," Penn State Beaver Chancellor Dr. Gary Keefer said.

Mollett's mother, Pamela Lawton, is pleading for her son to come forward. She's worried this will end in tragedy.

She showed up in the lobby at KDKA-TV. She's emotional and worried about her son. Lawton doesn't believe he has any guns and she says she's never known him to be violent.

However, she does say he's had some emotional problems. Twice she says he's been found along highways and seemed to be off in his own world.

At one point, he said he was counting birds and sitting down in a parking lot.

She made a plea to him.

"That his family loves him," she said. "We're still proud of him. No matter what the situation we'll see him through, that he would allow me or one of the family members to come in with him and turn himself in, that he would comply with the police's request."

KDKA's David Highfield asked Lawton if she thought her son would harm other people. She said, "I don't think so. I think he's more harmful to himself right now."

She believes he's tried to kill himself twice recently with pills. She also says he's been to Western Psych and wants to get him more help.

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