Dany Sammak, a 19-year-old University of Illinois student has been arrested and is being held on $250,000 bond in the Champaign County Jail for allegedly threatening classmates and residents of his home.
Witnesses reported that while making terroristic threats, Sammak referred to the shootings at Virginia Tech and made shooting gestures with his hands.
After the arrest, Champaign Police Department along with UI police and the FBI sought a search warrant for Sammak's home located at 200 block of East Armory Avenue to find out the legitimacy of his threats. When the officials ransacked his home including his computer, they did not find any proof or intention of harm.
As a result, Champaign County State's Attorney's Office charged Sammak with disorderly conduct, a class four felony.
"I commend the students who promptly reported this incident to law enforcement. I advise anyone who may be concerned about these types of threats to come forward immediately with information. It is always better to error on the side of caution, in these types of cases," said Champaign Police Chief Anthony Cobb.
Responding to Sammak's act, several social media users commented on the Department's Facebook page.
"I didn't even think about stuff like this when we were in college...it's a new era and you need to be so aware of your surroundings and those around you," Susan Dempsey Trumpio said.
"It's a shame we live in a society where cops have to go through all this to validate a potential threat from someone this unstable. I'm sure they have better things to do.............it's much more expensive to the taxpayers, not because of what he would/might do, but because of the backlash the police would get for 'not doing everything they could to stop it,'" Lewis Shepherd said.
