A 21-year-old junior at Cornell University was arrested Tuesday for making online threats to Jewish students, federal authorities said.
Patrick Dai was charged with posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications after his disturbing messages put the Ithaca, N.Y., campus on high alert last weekend.
Dai posted threats to “shoot up 104 west” — a dining hall at the university that caters to kosher diets and is located next to the Cornell Jewish Center, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York.
In another unnerving post, Dai threatened to “stab” and “slit the throat” of Jewish men on campus, rape Jewish woman and throw them off cliffs and decapitate any Jewish baby, prosecutors said.
The crazed student also said he would “bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig jews.”
Cornell promised the school would continue to “maintain its heightened security presence on campus.”
“We remain shocked by and condemn these horrific, antisemitic threats and believe they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” Cornell Vice President for University Relations Joel Malina said in a statement. “We know that our campus community will continue to support one another in the days ahead.”
If convicted, Dai, of Pittsford, N.Y., faces up to five years in prison. He’s an engineering student majoring in computer science, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The posts came the same week graffiti stating “Israel is fascist,” “Zionism = genocide” and “F*** Israel” popped up on campus, according to the Cornell Daily Sun, the school’s newspaper.
Earlier this month, violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories has prompted New York officials to bolster security measures and deploy additional police resources across the state.
“Threatening a mass shooting or horrific antisemitic violence is outrageous and unacceptable,” Gov. Hochul posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Grateful to our law enforcement partners who have worked to keep @Cornell students and all New Yorkers safe from the forces of hate.”
