A 23-year-old Florida International University (FIU) student was arrested after she posted messages about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a university group chat. Authorities reportedly interpreted Gabriela Saldana’s messages as a bomb threat targeting a campus event.
Who is Gabriela Saldana and what is she accused of?
Saldana,, a student at Florida International University, allegedly made “a threat to kill or do bodily harm to individuals regarding a scheduled event on Friday, April 10, 2026, via a WhatsApp group chat,” according to an arrest report, nbcmiami.com reported. She was arrested on April 16 near a parking garage on the Modesto Maidique campus, JFEED reported.
According to the arrest report, Saldana sent the message on Wednesday to a group chat with several people, and the location of the incident is listed as FIU’s campus.
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“The defendant did so in a manner in which it may be viewed by another person and intended the threat to be a true threat,” the report stated.
According to campus police, they arrested Saldana at an address that corresponds to a parking garage on 8th Street and 109th Avenue. She admitted that she sent the messages and was taken to Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
According to JFEED, Saldana allegedly wrote in a 215-member WhatsApp group for capstone students, “Netanyahu, if you can hear me, drop some bonbons for us Capstone students in Ocean Bank Convocation Center.”
Investigators believe “bonbons” was a coded reference to bombs. She allegedly also wrote that “there is going to be a bomb in the Ocean Bank Convocation Center and it was going to be Jonathan’s fault,” referring to another student in the chat.
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Saldana faces a second-degree felony charge of making written threats to kill or do bodily harm.
The messages were posted during discussions about a scheduled capstone event at FIU’s Ocean Bank Convocation Center. FIU police began investigating after other students reported the posts. Saldana later described the messages as a “dumb joke” aimed at expressing frustration and possibly getting the event rescheduled.
She later even edited the post and added an apologetic “I sowwy :(”.
Judge Mindy S. Glazer set bail at $5,000 in bond court. The judge ruled that the messages constituted a credible threat despite defense arguments that it was meant as a joke.
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