Abdul F. Ismail, 27, of Hadley was arraigned in Eastern Hampshire District Court Wednesday on charges of making a bomb threat and threatening to commit a crime on the University of Massachusetts campus, according to a release from Mary Carey, spokesperson for the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office.
“Ismail was arrested early on the morning of April 12 by UMass police, assisted by Hadley police, at Ismail’s residence in Hadley,” Carey said.
The UMass Police Department emailed out an alert to the UMass community around 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday which stated, “On April 11, 2017 at approximately 11:20 p.m., the University of Massachusetts Amherst Police Department responded to Coolidge Hall to investigate a bomb threat made against a student and the campus.”
According to the alert from UMPD, the student Ismail was visiting escorted him from the building after receiving verbal threats and alerted the authorities.
Ismail is not a UMass student or employee, and has been immediately “trespassed” from the UMass campus for two years by UMass police.
According to Carey, the case remains under investigation.
Rebecca Horn, a sophomore hospitality and tourism management major and Coolidge resident, spent the night in her dorm Tuesday night. She wasn’t aware of what happened until later in the afternoon.
“I didn’t even know about it until we got the email [from UMass Crime Alerts],” Horn said. “I was kind of surprised that they didn’t tell us anything.”
Coolidge resident Sakina Bengali, a junior psychology and sociology major, also shared a similar sentiment to Horn.
“I think the police reacted well to what happened,” “But it was around 11 p.m. and that’s when most people are at their dorms so I kind of feel like we should have the right to know what’s happening.”
Coolidge resident assistant Khaled Said, a senior biochemistry major, spent time at the W.E.B. Du Bois Library Tuesday night. He also only found out about the incident Wednesday afternoon from his co-resident assistant.
“I would say that I was a little worried, but these threats have happened and they all turned out to be false,” he said. “I kind of didn’t give it as much attention.”
This story will be updated as new information is released.
Editors note: This story was updated as of 4/12/17 at 9:43 p.m.
Hayley Johnson can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @hayleyk_johnson. Danny Cordova can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @DannyJCordova.
