Former Cornell student gets 21 months in prison for posting threats to shoot, stab Jews

SYRACUSE, New York — A former Cornell University student arrested for posting statements threatening violence against Jews on campus last fall after the start of the war in Gaza has been sentenced to 21 months in prison.

Patrick Dai, of suburban Rochester, New York, was accused by federal officials in October of posting anonymous threats to shoot and stab Jewish people on a Greek life forum. The threats came during a spike in antisemitic rhetoric related to the war in Gaza and rattled Jewish students on the upstate New York campus.

Dai pleaded guilty in April to posting threats to kill or injure another person using interstate communications.

He was sentenced in federal court to 21 months in prison and three years of supervised release by Judge Brenda Sannes, according to federal prosecutors. The judge says Dai “substantially disrupted campus activity” and committed a hate crime, but noted his diagnosis of autism, his mental health struggles and his non-violent history, according to cnycentral.com.

He had faced a possible maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Dai, who was a junior at the time, was suspended from the Ivy League school in Ithaca, New York.