Police Discover Professor's Massive Marijuana Operation While Investigating Him For Threatening A Mass Shooting

A Northwest Missouri State University professor being investigated for threatening a mass shooting will not be charged for it, as police cannot determine the seriousness of the threat.

However the communications professor, Matthew Rouch, now faces charges for producing and possessing marijuana, after his home pot lab was discovered during a weapons search, according to The Kansas City Star.

The paper reports that Rouch originally caught the attention of local police when he posted a potentially threatening message on his Facebook page.

Rouch reportedly wrote that he was always optimistic at the start of the school year but "by October, I'll be wanting to get up to the top of the bell tower with a high powered rifle - with a good scope, and probably a gatling gun as well," according to the Star.

United Press International points out that Rouch's post recalls the 1966 mass shooting from the top of the University of Texas bell tower.

The Star reports that Rouch claimed his post was just meant as a joke, and that he only owned a pellet gun. Police didn't find any guns during a weapons search of the professor's house, but did discover Rouch's "elaborate [marijuana] growing operation."

Authorities "discovered marijuana plants growing beneath heated lights, multiple baggies of pot and a few bongs, all sitting in plain sight," according to the Star, leading the local prosecutor to remark that it "looked like a lot of marijuana for personal use."