UC Threat Suspect Indicted on Two Charges

Samuel Northrup, Editor-in-Chief

The lone suspect in last month’s violent phone threats made to Utica College that led to a six-hour lockdown was indicted in Oneida County Court last week.

Fahrudin Omerovic, 23, is charged with two counts of making a terroristic threat, a Class D violent felony, and could face two to seven years per count if convicted. According to the County Court office, Omerovic will go in front of a judge on Friday, April 20.

At a March 6 press conference announcing Omerovic’s arrest, it was revealed the online student was initially charged with four counts of making a terroristic threat.

“I hope there is harsh sentencing of this person,” said Utica Police Chief Mark Williams at the press conference. “We’re seeing this (threats) happen all over the country, now it’s happening here locally, and to not give harsh sentencing on these individuals that commit these types of crimes would do a disservice to men and women in law enforcement as well as the school authorities; it would just encourage people to keep on doing it.”

Investigators were able to determine the suspect’s identity and make an arrest by tracing back to the source of the phone calls after it was found a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) app was used to make the anonymous threats. The Northeast Cybersecurity and Forensic Center at UC was one of the local firms consulted during the investigation.

In a separate matter, Omerovic was charged with felony identity theft and misdemeanor petit larceny after it was found the former UC student used someone else’s credit card information to order two vacuum cleaners to be delivered to the college bookstore.

Omerovic’s attorney John Raspante was not available to comment on either case prior to this article’s publication.

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