A 21-year-old engineering student at Cornell University was arrested on Tuesday for making online threats against Jewish students on campus, which ended up putting the Ivy League university on high alert over the weekend.
Cornell student and Pittsford, New York, native Patrick Dai, was named in a federal complaint charging him with posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications — which could land him up to five years in jail.
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES – 2023/10/28: Thousands of protesters demanding a ceasefire amid a war between Israel and Hamas participate in the “Flood Brooklyn For Gaza” march. (Photo by Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The federal complaint alleges that Dai posted threatening messages to the Cornell section of an online discussion site, including posts calling for the deaths of Jewish people, and a post that read, “gonna shoot up 104 west.”
Cornell University police said 104 West is a university dining hall that serves kosher food and is located next to the Cornell Jewish Center, a residency for students on campus.
In another post, Dai allegedly threatened to “stab” and “slit the throat” of any Jewish males he sees on campus, to rape and throw off a cliff any Jewish females he sees, and to behead any Jewish babies.
Dai also allegedly threatened to “bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig jews.”
The charge filed against Dai carries a maximum term of five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to three years, the U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern District of New York said.
Dai’s parents told the New York Post that their son suffers from “severe depression,” adding that they believe is innocent and was on the brink of suicide just moments before his arrest.
“My son is in severe depression. He cannot control his emotion well due to the depression. No, I don’t think he committed the crime,” his father, who asked that his name not be used, told the outlet.
Dai’s father said his son became deeply depressed in 2021, just one year after he started his engineering studies at Cornell, and that he has no history of violence.
“He was always very nice to society, well organized, helpful to my family and his classmates before 2021,” the student’s father said. “He told us he lost his life goal and motivation … As parents, we tried to give him more love.”
The father added that his wife, Dai’s mother, “called him or sent messages to him many times but got no answers. She was worrying that he may commit suicide and drove to his apartment to see what happened.”
But by the time she arrived at the Ithaca building, her son had already been arrested.
Many Americans have been on high alert in the wake of the October 7 terrorist attack in Israel by the Palestinian terror group Hamas, which left more than 1,400 Israelis dead, and also involved rape, kidnappings, and innocent civilians being set on fire.
As Breitbart News reported, the mass murder of Jews in Israel has galvanized students across the U.S. into putting on pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel demonstrations on their college campuses, and issuing pro-terror statements, opening the eyes of many who are now shocked to see how widespread antisemitism is on college campuses.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.