SAN JOSE — A San Jose State University graduate student has been federally charged with posting a campus bomb threat in a restroom last fall that included swastikas as well as slurs and insults against Muslims, Asians and liberal causes, and authorities suspect he may be behind other instances that prompted mass panic and emptied classrooms.
Ziheng “Tony” Fang, 30, of San Jose, is being held in federal detention after being charged last Thursday with one count of false information and hoaxes related to a Nov. 5, 2025 discovery of a sheet of paper, contained in a plastic sleeve, posted on the wall of a men’s restroom in MacQuarrie Hall. The paper was titled “!Warning!” and threatened a “mass bomb” the following week, all in block letters.
The central threat on the notebook-sized white sheet was flanked by crudely drawn swastikas, and included the messaging, “This is a White nation.” It further called for deadly violence against Muslims and Chinese people, using a slur for the latter group.
The scrawlings also showed the phrases “MAGA 2028,” “No on 50” — an apparent reference to California’s Congressional redistricting bill voters passed the day before — and concluded by calling for deadly violence against then-newly elected New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, according to a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California.
Near the sheet, written on the wall, was a similar call for violence against Jewish, Muslim, Mexican and Chinese people, again using a slur for the last group, and foreshadowing a “Mass bombing 11/11 and 11/12 guess.”
Fang, who is currently being held in federal custody, first appeared in federal court in San Jose on Friday and again Monday when he was assigned an attorney, who did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. The defendant is next scheduled to appear in court Thursday when his detention will be further discussed.
“The incidents of graffiti … caused real fear and harmed every member of the San Jose State community. And, our Jewish and Muslim students, faculty, and staff experienced these hateful acts in deeply personal ways,” SJSU spokesperson Michelle Smith McDonald said in a statement to this news organization. “We are deeply grateful to UPD and our law enforcement partners for their tireless work throughout this investigation, and we are encouraged that accountability is being pursued through the justice system.”
The criminal complaint — filed last week drawing on an investigation by the FBI and the University Police Department — only charges Fang with the Nov. 5 message, reportedly on the strength of a fingerprint match. But the accompanying affidavit implicates him as a serial saboteur responsible for some or all of 20 similar acts dating back two years that prompted repeated campus unrest over potential violence.
The criminal affidavit cites Fang’s keycard access history to essentially build a circumstantial case accusing him of repeatedly accessing campus buildings, including many where did not appear to have legitimate reason to be there, a few hours before the discovery of a threatening message found in a men’s or gender-neutral restroom.
In one instance, the affidavit states, on Nov. 18, he accessed a building an hour before someone in MacQuarrie Hall entered a men’s restroom and found a message featuring a large swastika and which forecasted a campus shooting in the next three days, threatening Asian, Jewish and Muslim people. The university police department at the time deemed the threat to be “low risk” and stated that they did “not have evidence indicating an imminent or credible plan to carry out violence on campus.”
With investigators focused on Fang after the fingerprint match, they scrutinized his building access in relation to 21 instances where similarly characterized messaging was written or posted in a restroom between October 2024 and this past May.
In 14 cases, he accessed a building on the same day of but usually several hours before a discovery was reported, according to the affidavit. Three instances involved a restroom in the student union, which does not require keycard access to reach.
Early on in the string of messages — typically written directly on a bathroom wall or fixture, though some involved paper posted on walls — Fang contacted police to report finding one of the threats on Oct. 30, 2024. That message mentioned a bomb and the date of the following day, depicted a swastika, stated “Whites stay home” and called for violence against Jewish and Muslim people.
Fang, described in the affidavit as a computer science student pursuing a master’s degree in data science, was surveilled being in the general proximity, location and time-wise, of the discovery of three troubling messages between April and May of this year, after authorities say they installed additional cameras outside campus restrooms.
University police interviewed Fang on May 20 and, according to the affidavit, while Fang acknowledged accessing the buildings during the times scrutinized by investigators, he did not say anything other than that he was in the buildings. The interview ended with Fang appearing to understand police what were insinuating, but insisting that “he did not know anything about how the graffiti got there or who was doing it.”