The LinkedIn account for 21-year-old Patrick Dai, the man charged on Tuesday for making antisemitic threats against Jewish students at Cornell University, indicates a previous role at the college as a “safety officer.”
The threats were discovered last week on a message board, which is not affiliated with the school itself, and called for the expulsion of all Jews on campus as well as acts of violence. The author of the posts also threatened to “bring an assault rifle to campus” to shoot all Jewish students.
The remarks sparked widespread outrage and an investigation by local and federal law enforcement. The Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday named Dai as the individual who posted “threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications.” If convicted, Dai could face a maximum of 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Shortly after, a LinkedIn profile for a “Patrick D” was discovered. The account belongs to a student from Cornell University. Local reporting from RochesterFirst also describes Dai as hailing from Pittsford, a suburb of Rochester. The LinkedIn profile lists the individual as graduating from a high school in Pittsford in 2020.
The New York Post has reported that the profile did in fact belong to Dai.
But the profile’s mention of a role as Safety Officer at Cornell from October 2020 to April 2021, a job aimed at helping “support logistics for events as well as monitor safety protocol,” has garnered the most attention.
“According to Patrick Dai’s LinkedIn account, he served as a ‘safety officer’ at Cornell. Unbelievable,” the on user wrote.
At this time, little else has been revealed about Dai. Prosecutors say, however, that the student “admitted, after receiving Miranda warnings, that he was the person who used the internet to post the threatening messages.”
Dai’s parents have claimed that their son is innocent.
“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 told the Post.
Investigators say they were able to locate Dai after linking his IP address to the threatening posts.
Since the conflict between Israel and Palestine began, the Anti-Defamation League has reported a 400 percent increase in preliminary antisemitic incidents as compared to the same time period last year.
