SJSU grad student faces federal charge for making campus threats
A man jogs past Tower Hall on the San Jose State University campus after the school announced a partnership with Udacity in San Jose, Calif. on Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2013, to offer online courses. The pilot program will begin this semester with two math
SAN JOSE, Calif. - The Justice Department on Monday announced the arrest of a 30-year-old San Jose man on a federal charge of false information and hoaxes.
Court documents allege that Zihen "Tony" Fang, wrote a hateful and threatening message placed in a plastic cover sheet taped to the bathroom wall of a men’s restroom at the San Jose State University campus. Fang is a graduate student at the school, pursuing a master’s degree in Data Science.
What we know:
The message, which was discovered on Nov. 5 of last year, featured drawings of swastikas and read in part, "Warning! Mass bomb next week. Eat pigs not dogs." The note included a racial slur against Chinese people and called for violence against Muslims and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. It described America as a "white nation," and included the phrases "MAGA 2028" and "No on 50."
Investigators found Fang’s fingerprint on the paper.
A second message, found on the same wall at the same time, called for people to kill minorities, including Jews, Muslims, Mexicans and Chinese people, and used a slur for the latter group. It also threatened a "mass bombing 11/11 and 11/12 guess."
SJSU police investigating violence threat, racist graffiti in bathroom
San Jose State Univ. officials on Wednesday said they're searching for a suspect who wrote a threat of campus violence over three days on a bathroom wall in MacQuarrie Hall. Some classes have been canceled and others switched to on-line as the campus community reacted to the disturbing development.
The backstory:
The complaint alleges that since October 2024, SJSU police officers have recorded over 20 instances of hateful and threatening messages written in men’s and gender-neutral restrooms around the school’s campus.
Many of the messages include threats of violence on a specific date, as well as weapons and methods that would be used, such as bombs, knives and guns.
The most recent threat was discovered on May 14 of this year.
Dig deeper:
Investigators determined that Fang had, in 16 of 18 cases where a threatening message was discovered, accessed the building where the note was found. Those buildings can only be accessed by a key card.
A second person had accessed the same buildings nearly the same number of times, but they were an SJSU staff member who worked with facilities, and had a reason to be in each building.
Surveillance video also showed Fang, in the days prior to the discovery of a note, entering and exiting the areas where some of the messages were discovered.
Local perspective:
The complaint states the SJSU President’s Office provided email and text message alerts to notify students and staff before dates that attacks were threatened to take place.
Upon alerts being issued, professors decided for themselves whether to hold class remotely or cancel it entirely.
University police and school administrators received numerous calls from people worried about coming to campus because of the threats. The campus buildings were, according to the complaint, a "ghost town," on those days.
What's next:
Fang is being held in federal custody and is next scheduled to appear in federal court on July 13.
The Source: The United States Department of Justice, previous KTVU reporting