Patrick Dai, 21, of Pittsford, Monroe County, New York, United States is the son of Bing Liu, who operates an online ordering business from their residence in Pittsford n. His father is an optics professor teaching at Tianjin University in Tianjin, China and a former teacher at the University of Rochester in Rochester, Monroe County.
In May 2020, Dai graduated from Pittsford-Mendon High School in Pittsford. In August 2020, he entered Cornell University in Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York to pursue a bachelor’s degree in engineering.
In 2021, Dai sank into a deep depression, his parents told the New York Post. The earlier isolation of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic may have exacerbated his mental struggles, according to his mother.
In the spring of 2022 and 2023, Dai took off two semesters from his studies at the suggestion of a doctor, according to his parents. He was prescribed the anti-depressant Lexapro, which is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), according to the Democrat and Chronicle.
Liu told the publication that Dai is very disciplined and focused in the classroom and beyond. But he reportedly had complained that Lexapro was making him worse.
Lexapro is for acute treatment of major depressive disorder in adults and adolescents aged 12-17 and generalized anxiety disorder in adults. It should generally be administered once daily, morning or evening, with or without food, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In October 2023, Dai made headlines after allegedly posting anti-Semitic mass shooting threats online. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested him at his apartment in Ithaca.
Dai was charged with posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications. On November 1, 2023. he made his initial appearance in federal court in Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York before a U.S. Magistrate Judge, who ordered him held without bail.
Represented by Lisa Peebles, Dai will be back in court on November 15, 2023. He is being held in the Broome County Jail in Binghamton, Broome County, New York.
CONAN Daily 