FIU Student Arrested After Asking Netanyahu to 'Drop Bombs' on Her Campus in a WhatsApp Chat She Called a Joke

A 23-year-old Florida International University student is facing a felony charge after two messages she sent in a 215-person student WhatsApp group chat drew a swift response from campus police and, eventually, a Miami-Dade bond court.

Gabriela Saldana was arrested in the early hours of 17 April 2026, hours after FIU campus police investigated a written threat transmitted to a large student group discussing a forthcoming event at the university's Ocean Bank Convocation Center.

She was taken to Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center and appeared before Judge Mindy S. Glazer in bond court, where her bail was set at £3,960 ($5,000). The charge she faces, written threats to kill or do bodily harm under Florida Statute 836.10, is classified as a second-degree felony and carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

The WhatsApp Messages That Triggered a Campus Police Response

According to the arrest report, as reported by WSVN 7News and NBC 6 South Florida, Saldana sent two separate messages in the student group chat, which contained approximately 215 members. Students had been using the chat to discuss a scheduled event at FIU's Ocean Bank Convocation Center.

In the first message, Saldana invoked the name of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, writing: 'Netanyahu, if you can hear me, drop some bonbons for us Capstone students in Ocean Bank Convocation Center.' WSVN obtained screenshots of the message. Saldana appeared to be frustrated about the event schedule and directed the message at a world leader with no operational connection to the campus.

The second message, disclosed by FIU Police during the bond court hearing, was more direct. According to WSVN, she also wrote: 'There is going to be a bomb in the Ocean Bank Convocation Center and it was going to be Jonathan's fault,' a reference to another student in the chat. The arrest report states Saldana 'did so in a manner in which it may be viewed by another person and intended the threat to be a true threat.'

Students in the group did not treat the messages as humour. The reaction prompted Saldana to follow up with an acknowledgement: 'I wrote a dumb joke that should not have been made.' FIU campus police officers arrested her shortly after 2:10 a.m. at an address corresponding to a parking garage at 8th Street and 109th Avenue on campus. She admitted to sending and transmitting the messages.

Judge Glazer on Probable Cause and the Limits of Intent

Saldana appeared before Judge Mindy S. Glazer, a Miami-Dade circuit court judge, in bond court on Thursday afternoon. Glazer addressed the question of intent directly from the bench, drawing a distinction between what the sender believed she was doing and how the messages would appear to an outside observer.

'I can understand your position when you are saying this is a joke, but to an objective person, it's not a joke, and it would be enough for probable cause,' Glazer said, as reported by WSVN. 'I'm not saying it's enough for beyond a reasonable doubt. I don't know if the state is going to be able to prove it in trial, but for purposes of this hearing, I believe there is enough for probable cause.'

The judge declined to find probable cause for the prejudice enhancement attached to the original charge, and that portion was dismissed.

Saldana's bond was ultimately set at £3,960 ($5,000). Glazer's comments acknowledge that a trial conviction is not guaranteed, but they confirm the case will proceed through the Miami-Dade court system.

FIU Calls the Threat 'Credible and Imminent'

Florida International University released an official statement confirming the arrest and its own assessment of the threat. 'An FIU student has been arrested for making a credible and imminent threat of violence at a planned university event,' the university stated, as reported by Local 10. '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.'

The university's characterisation of the threat as identifying 'a specific date, time and venue' aligns with what is known about the Convocation Center event but sits in tension with Saldana's own framing. FIU's invocation of federal student privacy laws, specifically the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, indicates the university does not intend to release further details about Saldana's academic standing or disciplinary history.

The case raises questions that extend beyond one student and one chat. Group messaging platforms have become standard infrastructure in university settings, used for everything from seminar coordination to social planning. The legal standard applied here that a threat in a viewable electronic message may constitute a felony regardless of stated intent will likely be tested further as prosecutors determine how to proceed.

What Saldana called a failed joke, Florida law and FIU administrators treated as a credible threat, and a court will now decide where the line falls.