Federal prosecutors said a former Cornell University student pleaded guilty Wednesday to posting a series of messages online threatening to stab, rape and behead Jews shortly after the Gaza war began last fall. announced.
Former student Patrick Dye has pleaded guilty to using interstate communications to post threats to kill others, according to federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of New York.
Dye, 21, of Pittsford, New York, is scheduled to be sentenced in August and could face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, prosecutors said.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clark of the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division said in a statement: “This defendant is a perpetrator of despicable, abhorrent, anti-Semitic threats of violence levied against members of Cornell University's Jewish community. They are being held accountable.”
Lisa Peebles, the federal public defender representing Dye, did not respond to a request for comment. In an interview with local television station WHEC outside the federal courthouse in Syracuse, New York, on Wednesday, she said the threat was the product of “bad decisions” over a “bad few days.”
“He's very remorseful,” she said. “He accepts responsibility.”
A university spokesperson declined to comment on the petition.
Mr. Dye was a third-year computer science major when he made the threat. In pleading guilty, he admitted to posting anonymously on the Cornell University section of an online discussion forum about fraternity and sorority life on Oct. 28 and Oct. 29, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the threats included saying he would “shoot up” a kosher cafeteria on Cornell's campus and “blow up” Jewish housing there.
Prosecutors said in one post he threatened to “stab” and “slit the throat” of a Jewish man he saw on campus. He rapes a Jewish woman and throws her off a cliff. Beheading a Jewish baby. He then “brings an assault rifle onto campus” and shoots and kills Jews.
The FBI tracked the threats to Dye through the IP address, and Dye admitted in an interview with federal agents that they were his, according to the criminal complaint.
The threat comes amid a surge in anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim rhetoric across the United States, including at universities, after the Gaza war began in October. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Vice President Kamala Harris' husband Doug Emhoff visited Cornell University's Ithaca campus to show support for the upset students. Cornell University canceled classes for one day.
Dai's mother, Bing Liu, told The Associated Press in November that she believed the threats were due in part to medication her son was taking for depression and anxiety.
She told The Associated Press that her son had started bringing him home on weekends because of his depression, that he was home the weekend the threats were made, and that he had previously missed three semesters. He talked about things like that.
