A former student at the University of Buffalo, N.Y., who made a social-media post “directing people to engage in tumultuous and violent conduct” against Jewish students pleaded guilty on Feb. 27 to one count of inciting to riot, the county’s district attorney’s office said on Friday.
The now 19-year-old posted a photo on May 6, 2024, of a campus pro-Israel demonstration on Holocaust Remembrance Day with the caption, “Can somebody shoot this s**t up?” on the class of 2027 public Snapchat story, according to The Spectrum, school’s independent student paper.
After being identified by university police, the student turned himself in. He was subsequently charged with attempting to make a terrorist threat and a threat of mass harm—a felony and misdemeanor, respectively—the university press office stated.
“The university will immediately respond whenever threatening, harassing or discriminatory acts are committed against a member of our community,” said Brian Hamluk, the school’s vice president for student life. “UB states in the strongest possible manner that we condemn and stand firmly against antisemitism, Islamophobia and discrimination of any form.”
Since the defendant was 18 at the time, he will be sentenced, on June 2, as a youthful offender, according to the district attorney’s office.
