The New York State Police arrested 21-year-old Patrick Dai on Tuesday for making online threats against Cornell’s Jewish community, according to law enforcement. A junior at Cornell, Dai was charged just hours after police troopers named him as a suspect.
“Earlier today, law enforcement identified a person of interest as part of the investigation and this individual is currently in the custody of the New York State Police for questioning. Public safety is my top priority and I’m committed to combatting hate and bias wherever it rears its ugly head,” a statement released Tuesday by New York governor Kathy Hochul said.
Dai was detained on a federal criminal complaint that charged him with threatening to kill or injure another individual using interstate communications, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New York said in a statement. The charge could land Dai a five year prison sentence and an up to $250,000 fine.
The Cornell University police department posted guards outside of the campus Jewish center in response to an onslaught of threats against Jewish students posted to an online forum over the weekend by anonymous antisemites.
The posts, which appeared on Cornell’s GreekRank forum, generally advocated the murder and rape of Jews on campus, while one user said they were going to “shoot up 104 West,” the location of Cornell’s Center for Jewish Living as well as the university’s kosher dining room, the Cornell Daily Sun reported.
A user writing under the moniker “kill jews” wrote, “gonna shoot up 104 West.”
“Allahu akbar! from the river to the sea, palestine will be free! glory to hamas! liberation by any means necessary!” the post continued.
Another post titled “jewish people need to be killed,” made by the anonymous poster “jew evil,” read: “if you see a jewish “person” on campus follow them home and slit their throats. rats need to be eliminated from cornell” [sic]
“if i see another synagogue another rally for the zionist globalist genocidal apartheid dictatorial entity known as “israel”, i will bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig jews [sic],” said one post titled “if i see another jew” by a user calling themselves “hamas.”
President Martha Pollack sent out an email to the Cornell community Sunday evening, in which she condemned the online threats. Pollack announced that the Cornell University Police Department was on-site at 104 West to investigate, and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been informed of a potential hate crime. She also noted that CUPD will remain at 104 West to ensure the safety of community members present.
“We will not tolerate antisemitism at Cornell. During my time as president, I have repeatedly denounced bigotry and hatred, both on and off our campus. The virulence and destructiveness of antisemitism is real and deeply impacting our Jewish students, faculty and staff, as well as the entire Cornell community,” Pollack said. “This incident highlights the need to combat the forces that are dividing us and driving us toward hate. This cannot be what defines us at Cornell.”
The threatening comments were posted on GreekRank, an independent forum for the discussion of Greek life on campuses across the U.S. The site’s user guidelines ban content that “contains hate speech or promotes or condones violence.” Many of the incendiary posts can only be read now through archived screen captures, as the original posts have been taken down.
These online threats are the latest instance of antisemitism at Cornell in recent weeks. They follow in the wake of a pro-Palestinian student rally held near campus after the October 7 attacks, where a professor openly described the attacks as “exhilarating” and “energizing.” Last Wednesday, Cornell’s campus was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti, which included the phrases “Israel is fascist,” “Zionism = genocide” and “F*** Israel.”
Dai will make his appearance in court on Wednesday before a U.S. magistrate judge.