A Cornell University junior was charged last week for making a series of online threats against Jewish students, including threatening to “slit the throat” of Jewish men and rape and murder Jewish women, NBC News reported.
Federal prosecutors from the North District of New York charged Patrick Dai, 21, with using interstate communications to post threats to injure or kill another.
According to prosecutors, in online postings, Dai threatened to “shoot up” a building at Cornell. He also threatened to “slit the throat” or “stab” male Jewish students, and rape Jewish women he sees on campus then throw them off a roof.
Dai also threatened to bring a rifle to school and shoot all the Jews and said he would behead Jewish babies.
According to the criminal complaint, when he was interviewed by the FBI, Dai admitted to making the threats.
Earlier last Tuesday, officials at Cornell confirmed that the person who made the threats against Jewish students last weekend had been identified and arrested.
Investigators identified Dai by tracing the online messages to his IP address.
In a statement Tuesday night, Vice President for University Relations, Joel Malina, thanked the FBI for working swiftly to identify and arrest the suspect and said Cornell remains “shocked” by the “horrific, antisemitic threats” and believes Dai should be “prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
Dai appeared in federal court in Syracuse, New York on Wednesday. If convicted, he could face as many as five years behind bars and a $250,000 fine.
The threats, which alarmed students at the Ivy League university in Central New York, are just some in a series of threats and intimidation Jewish students in American universities have faced since the October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel.
The Anti-Defamation League said in late October that since the October 7 attacks, incidents of antisemitic harassment, threats, vandalism, and assaults have skyrocketed by nearly 400 percent.
