Florida student arrested after WhatsApp joke asking Netanyahu to bomb university event

• Florida Student arrested after jokingly asking Netnayhu to bomb a university event on WhatsApp group chat.
• She is faced with threats to kill or do bodily harm, with a bond of $5,000.

A student from Florida International University was arrested after making a joke asking Netanyahu to bomb a student event in a university WhatsApp group.

Twenty-three-year-old student Gabriela Saldana was arrested after sending a message in a WhatsApp group chat with 215 other students. She typed “Netanyahu, if you can hear me, drop some bonbons for us Capstone students in Ocean Bank Convocation Center.”

This came after students were discussing plans for an upcoming university event. In court, an officer also stated she wrote "There is going to be a bomb in the Ocean Bank Convocation Center, and it was going to be Jonathan's fault," referencing another student in the group.

After students in the group chat took offense and asked for her to be removed from the group chat, she replied with “I wrote a dumb joke that should not have been made.”

Court hearing 

In court, the judge stated that she understood it was a joke, but it could easily be taken as probable cause. She continued by saying, "I don't know if the state is going to be able to prove it in trial, but for the purposes of this hearing, I believe there is enough for probable cause." Saldana was later charged with threats to kill or do bodily harm and is set with a bond of $5,000. 

The university later came out with a statement saying, “An FIU student has been arrested for making a credible and imminent threat of violence at a planned university event. According to the investigation, the suspect identified a specific date, time, and venue. Given the ongoing investigation and federal student privacy laws, FIU has no further comment. There is no further threat to the university community.”