Mom of accused Cornell student offers insights into son's mental state, hidden apology

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Hours after threatening antisemitic online postings that came from a Cornell University student last week, allegedly, another posting appeared with a very different tone.

''Apologies," the post began. "There is no room for divisive statements in person or online. I am sorry.

"A lesser man would try to hide behind a mask and that is exactly what I did. Shameful, calling for violence against people because of a cruel war a thousand miles away. Even more shameful because there is no excuse for the targeting of innocent civilians, much less my classmates."

Federal prosecutors allege that Patrick Dai, a 21-year-old Cornell student from Pittsford, New York, last week threatened in online postings to "shoot up" a dining hall that mostly caters to Jewish students and to "bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot" all Jewish students at the university in Ithaca. The postings also included other threats of violence against Jewish students.

Dai's mother, Bing Liu, gave an interview at her Pittsford home on Monday to the Democrat and Chronicle, part of the USA TODAY Network.

She talked about her son's online apology for his threats — threats that she said she thinks were partly triggered by his use of a medication to counter serious depression and anxiety. The apology posting, she said, was given to her by Dai's defense lawyers with the federal public defender's office in Syracuse. They received the posting in a package of evidence given to them after Dai's court appearance last week, she said.

Lisa Peebles, the federal public defender for the Northern District of New York, declined to comment about the case against Dai.

She has requested a bail hearing for Dai and it is now scheduled for Thursday.

The threats at any time would be especially disturbing but with rising incidents of antisemitism on college campuses and elsewhere, as well as growing fears of mass shootings, the postings sent tremors through the Cornell campus.

"We remain shocked by and condemn these horrific, antisemitic threats and believe they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law," said Joel Malina, vice president for university relations, in a statement last week.

Liu, 53, did not discount the seriousness of her son's alleged actions.

And she also acknowledged that his innocence or guilt has yet to be determined. But in the apology she witnessed words that she thought sounded more like her son, she said. The timeline on the apology shows it was posted before his arrest.

Occasionally tearful, Liu said the media has not given a full picture of her son.

Her son now "has no future," she said. Prosecutors and the FBI should have shared the apology publicly as part of the evidence against Dai that last week became national and international news, Liu said.

"Why didn't they reveal this important piece of information?" she said. "Also, why didn't the school?"

The posting could not be located online but may have been removed, as were the threats that federal prosecutors say came from Dai, a 2020 graduate of Pittsford Mendon High School.

Whatever the facts behind the apology, the initial threats could not be discounted or downplayed, some local Jewish leaders say.

"I thought that we had truly entered the era where harassment and hate speech against Jewish students publicly was now mainstreamed and that student antisemitism was no longer something that people hid," said Monica Gebell, the executive director at the Levine Center to End Hate at the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester.

"The Israel-Hamas war has unleashed such vitriol online against Jews and Muslims both and with such misinformation behind the messaging that the mainstreaming of outright hate was now acceptable," she said of her fears spurred by the postings.

Since the start of the war, the Anti-Defamation League has reported a 388% increase in harassment and assaults on Jewish people in the United States.

Federal prosecutors declined to comment about the case against Dai.

Dai struggles with mental health, medication

Dai was home with his mother and 15-year-old brother the weekend when the threats first went online. Liu said she had been picking him up for weekends because of what appeared to be his worsening depression.

"Because I worry about his mental health, every Friday after his lessons ... I went to Cornell to bring him back home, then I'd take him back Sunday night," she said. Because of a Sunday commitment, she instead returned him to Cornell on the Monday morning of Oct. 30.

Prosecutors alleged that Dai posted the threats on Oct. 28 and Oct. 29. If so, he would have been at his Pittsford home when he did so.

Dai, whom Liu described as very disciplined and focused in the classroom and beyond, had taken three earlier semesters off because of a difficult transition to college. His mental struggles may have been exacerbated by the earlier isolation of the pandemic, his mother said.

In the summer Dai was prescribed the anti-depressant Lexapro, a medication known as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, or SSRI. SSRIs increase serotonin levels in the brain to improve moods and emotions, according to the Mayo Clinic.

In some cases, the medication is known to heighten depression and even suicidal thoughts, particularly among young people, in the early weeks after first prescribed, according to the clinic. When people are in a suicidal crisis, they sometimes act in ways that are not recognizable to friends and family as the "real" them; it's a medically-observed symptom of severe depression in some cases.

Dai had complained that the medication was making him worse.

The family planned to meet with his therapist to discuss a change. His father, an optics professor, teaches at Tianjin University in China and is now overseas; he previously taught at the University of Rochester.

Liu learns of allegations against son

Liu said she texted her son on Halloween and received no response, nor any indication that the message was delivered to his phone. Worried, she drove to Cornell and could not locate her son at his apartment.

Court papers show that Dai may have been questioned by the FBI at the same time Liu was at Cornell. An FBI agent alleges in court papers that Dai admitted in the interview that "he was the person who used the internet to post the threatening messages."

At the university, she said, Liu encountered police at his apartment. The mom said they told her Dai was safe and being questioned by police. "He only told me that Patrick posted something online and wanted to hurt himself and other people," she said.

Liu said she had to return to Pittsford because her younger son would be coming home from high school. She was still unclear what had happened.

Before she had learned the specifics of the allegations on Oct. 31, the FBI came to her home and searched the house, she said. Agents seized family laptops. One laptop, Liu said, is the device she uses for an online ordering business operated from her home. Also taken was her teenage son's computer, which he uses for music compositions. He has studied at the Eastman School of Music in a program for high school students, Liu said.

It wasn't until later that day that a friend texted her a story from the Daily Beast, headlined, "Cornell Junior Arrested for Chilling Antisemitic Mass Shooting Threat." Then, she first became aware of the allegations against her son and the gravity of the charges.

"I was shocked," she said. "I didn't get to sleep."

She has hardly slept since, Liu said.

In the days thereafter, journalists knocked on her door and photographed her home. She called 911 to ask for help to keep people away from her house. She also received death threats in telephone calls, some from as far away as California, Liu said.

Dai is now being held in the Broome County jail. "I worry about him," Liu said. "He needs to take medication."

College pressure a flashpoint for Middle East debate

With the current war waging between Israel and Hamas, a conflict sparked by the Hamas Oct. 7 brutal assault on Israel civilians and military, the conflict is now the focus of tense, divisive and seemingly intractable international debates. Israel has responded with an air and ground attack on Gaza. Meanwhile, Hamas continues to hold hostages kidnapped during the initial attacks.

Colleges and universities have become particular flashpoints for the debate. Cornell had its own simmering controversy before Dai's arrest.

At an Oct. 15 rally, Cornell Associate Professor Russell Rickford stated that he was initially “exhilarated” by Hamas’s attack on Israel, claiming that the group “challenged the monopoly of violence,” and stated "if they weren’t exhilarated by this challenge to the monopoly of violence, by this shifting of the balance of power then they would not be human. I was exhilarated,” according to the Cornell Daily Sun.

Rickford apologized for the “horrible choice of words” in a statement published in the Cornell Daily Sun Oct. 18, in which he said that his speech “was intended to stress grassroots African American, Jewish and Palestinian traditions of resistance to oppression.”

Meanwhile, Muslim organizations at Cornell have condemned the threats allegedly made by Dai.

“We stand firmly against any form of discrimination that sets out to endanger, defame or dehumanize anyone,” said a statement from several Muslim student organizations, according to the Cornell Daily Sun. “We call upon Cornell to protect the Jewish community and conduct a thorough and complete investigation and we hope that the responsible party answers for these dangerous posts.” 

Gebell, of the Levine Center to End Hate, praised the work of university police and federal law enforcement to quickly make an arrest.

"Under the guise of grassroots activism we're seeing a number of students caught up in this political posturing that seems to be all for the support of the independence and well-being of Palestinians but also is anti-Zionist and in some cases supports Hamas," Gebell said. "What's worrisome is that with thousands and thousands, even millions of students attending colleges, we don't know who among them is properly caring for their mental health, whose needs are not being served and, unfortunately, until something like this happens, we have no indication of who is suffering."

Star of David hangs in Patrick Dai's family home

Bing Liu was in Israel in 2000 for post-graduate studies. She brought home a Star of David with Hebrew text at its center that she has proudly hung in her home. Never, she said, did her son exhibit animus toward the Star of David or to Jewish people, both in the broader sense but also with friendships he had among students.

Her son never handled a firearm, Liu said. At the suggestion of a friend, she bought a shotgun in 2020, worried about vandalism that seemed to be on the increase. She did not learn how to use it and never removed it from the box, Liu said.

Patrick once asked her of the 20-gauge shotgun, "Why did you get this? It's so big." The FBI also seized the gun, she said.

At the home Liu proudly displays Dai's academic and sporting honors. He played high school tennis and was stellar in academics. He was a National Merit Scholar and attained the highest possible score on his ACT standardized test, a score reached by two-tenths of 1% of test takers.

Dai has often been her rock with her husband away, constantly helping her during an earlier bout with cancer that she suffered, Liu said. Among his papers she has is a letter he wrote to a high school teacher.

In it, he wrote: "It's very clear that America now is more partisan than ever before. For me at least there's been times when it's been tough. Whether it be tense dinner arguments with relatives over competing social media postings, or political division in general. Partisanship is the disease and kindness is the cure."

"This is Patrick," Liu said.

It's likely that his criminal case will involve mental health evaluations. Those evaluations typically focus on one's competency and ability to stand trial.

In the online apology, Dai — if it was his writing — spoke of mental health problems while adding, "No amount of depression or loneliness or sadness is an excuse for terror or terroristic threats."

The apology was signed "a depressed suicidal person."

The apology concluded with a P.S.: "Once it gets on the news please don't mock my parents or acquaintances or other family members too much they weren't the ones responsible it was all me."

Gary Craig is a veteran reporter with the Democrat and Chronicle, covering courts and crime and more. You can reach Craig at [email protected].