{"id":3233,"date":"2026-04-26T14:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T14:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/?p=3233"},"modified":"2026-04-26T14:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T14:40:15","slug":"florida-student-charged-over-whatsapp-bomb-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/florida-student-charged-over-whatsapp-bomb-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida student charged over WhatsApp bomb threat"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"Page-articleBody\">\n<div class=\"RichTextArticleBody RichTextBody\">\n<div class=\"ArticlePage-dateAndSource\">( Apr. 21, 2026 \/ JNS )<\/div>\n<p>A Florida student faces a felony charge for making threats in a WhatsApp group chat, including hopes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would bomb a campus building.<\/p>\n<p>Gabriela Saldana, 23, was arrested near Florida International University on April 16 and\u00a0<span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DXPfeLTknAk\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">charged<\/a><\/span>\u00a0with making written threats to kill or do bodily injury.<\/p>\n<p>In a chat of about 200 people, students were discussing an event scheduled at the Ocean Bank Convocation Center on campus.<\/p>\n<p>In court, police alleged that Saldana wrote, \u201cThere\u2019s going to be a bomb\u201d there, according to local reporting. She also wrote, \u201cNetanyahu, if you can hear me, drop some bonbons for us capstone students in Ocean Bank Convention Center.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When members of the chat responded with concern, Saldana wrote: \u201cI made a dumb joke that should not have been made.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Judge Mindy S. Glazer said to the defendant: \u201cI can understand your position when you are saying this is a joke, but to an objective person, it\u2019s not a joke. And it would be enough for probable cause. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s enough for beyond a reasonable doubt. I don\u2019t know what the state\u2019s going to be able to prove at trial, but for purposes of this hearing, I believe there is enough for probable cause.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The university\u00a0<span class=\"LinkEnhancement\"><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/wsvn.com\/news\/local\/miami-dade\/fiu-student-arrested-for-wanting-israels-netanyahu-to-drop-bombs-on-school-event-arena-police-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-cms-ai=\"0\">said<\/a><\/span>\u00a0in a statement, \u201cAn FIU student has been arrested for making a credible and imminent threat of violence at a planned university event. According to the investigation, the suspect identified a specific date, time and venue. Given the ongoing investigation and federal student privacy laws, FIU has no further comment. There is no further threat to the university community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saldana\u2019s bond has been set at $5,000.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Page-articleBelow\">\n<div class=\"Page-actions-bottom\">\n<div class=\"Page-actions\">\n<div class=\"ActionBar\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>( Apr. 21, 2026 \/ JNS ) A Florida student faces a felony charge for making threats in a WhatsApp group chat, including hopes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would bomb a campus building. Gabriela Saldana, 23, was arrested near Florida International University on April 16 and\u00a0charged\u00a0with making written threats to kill or do [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3235,"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3233\/revisions\/3235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewishflorida.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}