Cornell student Patrick Dai was brought into federal court in chains Wednesday morning after he admitted making horrific threats against Jews after FBI agents traced his IP address to campus and his hometown.
Dai was booked into the Broome County Sheriff’s Department yesterday on behalf of the U.S. Marshals.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Brown said in court in Syracuse that Dai visited the campus dining facility that he had threatened to shoot up in his online posts.
“He knew exactly what it was,” Brown said, asking for Dai to be held without bail because of flight risk.
The 21-year-old waived his right to a timely bail hearing and was ordered to remain in jail by U.S. Magistrate Judge Thérèse Wiley.
Cornell student Patrick Dai was brought into federal court in Syracuse in chains Wednesday morning after he admitted making horrific threats against Jews after FBI agents traced his IP address to campus and his hometown
Dai was represented by Gabrielle DiBella, a federal public defender. His mother also sat in the gallery and tried to cover her face as cameras took pictures of her walking away from the courtroom.
He has been held in the Broome County Jail since his arrest Tuesday.
Last week, in a series of posts on the Greekrank forum, he threatened to shoot, stab and kill “pig Jews,” calling himself “Hamas.”
The threats roiled the campus, prompting the closure of the kosher dining hall out of fear for student safety.
Dai was arrested last night at his off-campus apartment after FBI agents traced two IP addresses he used while posting to the forum.
One was at Cornell and the other in Pittsford, where he grew up.
Now he is in custody in Broome County, New York, awaiting his first appearance before a federal judge. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
While his parents claim he is innocent, The New York Post he is ‘depressed’ and ‘did not commit the crime’, he admitted once in custody.
“Dai, after receiving warnings from Miranda, admitted that he was the person who used the Internet to post the threatening messages described above,” the complaint reads.
The messages included calls for the liberation of Palestine and threats against “104 West” – the Cornell campus Center for Jewish Living.
Patrick Dai’s mother (pictured left) leaves the US court with her son’s lawyer, Gabrielle DiBella
A Broome County sheriff’s van leaves the U.S. District Court in Syracuse with Dai
His mother also sat in the gallery and tried to cover her face as cameras took pictures of her walking away from the courtroom
Dai confessed to an FBI agent after being read his Miranda rights, the complaint said
Among several messages left on the school’s Greekrank page — a forum intended for fraternity and sorority reviews — were messages headlined “Eliminate Jewish Life from the Cornell Campus” or “Israel Deserved 10/7.”
In addition to his Cornell IP address, FBI agents also traced some messages Dai posted on the forum to Pittsford, a suburb of Rochester, where he grew up. Above is his parental home
According to his parents, Dai (as a nine-year-old, above) ‘couldn’t control his emotions’
Dai confessed to an FBI agent after being read his Miranda rights, the complaint said
“I’m going to shoot 104 west. Allahu akbar! from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free! glory to Hamas! deliverance by any means necessary!’ read one of his posts from October 29.
He wrote under the username ‘kill Jews’ (sic).
In others he wrote: ‘Beware Jews, jihad is coming.’
It is unclear what prompted his hatred or threats.
His father said he was so depressed that the family feared he was suicidal, and his mother drove to Cornell to check on him when he was arrested.
‘My son is in severe depression. The depression makes him unable to control his emotions properly,” his father, a professor at a university in China, told the Post.
According to the family, he had taken time out from college to deal with his mental health, but had recently returned to campus.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul was among those calling for his arrest.