UW student makes death threats, police say

SEATTLE – Federal prosecutors have charged a University of Washington student accused of posting online threats to kill women in solidarity with Elliot Rodger, who went on a murderous rampage last month in California.

Keshav Mukund Bhide 23, made an initial appearance Thursday in federal court. He is charged with making interstate threats to cause injury or death “to women at the University of Washington and to two other women online.”

“Ill make sure I kill only women, and many more than what Elliot accomplished,” prosecutors allege Bhide wrote in a June 9 post.

Arrested last weekend at his campus dorm, Bhide is being held pending a Monday detention hearing. It was not known late Thursday whether he had a lawyer.

The online threats using the name “Foss Dark” were made between May 31 and June 9, the U.S. attorney’s office alleged. The author wrote that he lived in Seattle and attended UW.

In court papers, an FBI agent said UW campus police contacted the agency on June 13 with information regarding “a possible mass shooter threat” on campus.

The FBI tracked “Foss Dark” through Google subscriber information. Court papers say FBI databases matched that subscriber email to a student visa application Bhide submitted to attend UW.

In an FBI interview, Bhide acknowledged creating a Google Plus profile under the name “Foss Dark” and posting the comments, agent Michael Baldino wrote in charging papers. Baldino is assigned to the Seattle FBI domestic terrorism squad.

Bhide said he sympathized with Santa Barbara shooter Rodger’s personal struggles.

“Bhide stated that he, like Rodger, had a hard time socializing at school and had few friends,” Baldino wrote.