SAN JOSE — A federal judge has granted the supervised release of a San Jose State University graduate student charged with posting a hoax bomb threat on a restroom wall on campus last fall, following an investigation that implicated him in other unhinged messages foreboding mass violence at the school.
As it stands, Ziheng “Tony” Fang is facing only one federal count of false information and hoaxes in connection with a Nov. 5, 2026 posting, centered on a notebook-sized sheet of paper placed in a plastic sleeve and affixed to a men’s restroom in MacQuarrie Hall. Investigators connected Fang to the post though a reported fingerprint match.
Fang, a 30-year-old San Jose resident, was arrested July 10, according to court records. He appeared in court Thursday where federal Judge Nathanael Cousins approved an agreement between the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Fang’s attorney under which Fang was set to be released from federal detention at the Elmwood men’s jail in Milpitas by the end of Thursday.
The conditions of Fang’s release — predicated in large part on his lack of any serious criminal history — include supervision by federal pretrial services and an unsecured $15,000 bond co-signed by Fang’s father. Fang is also prohibited from setting foot on any California State University campus or attending any off-campus CSU events and activities.
Fang spoke briefly, saying “Yes” and “Yes, your honor” when Cousins asked him if he understood the conditions and agreed to them.
“This is an early stage in the criminal proceedings. Obviously, this gentleman has a right to the presumption of innocence,” Fang’s defense attorney, William Pernik, said after the hearing. “I think it’s important to not rush to judgment until all the facts are out.”
According to a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, in the Nov. 5 post the author headed the sheet with “!Warning!” and threatened a “mass bomb” the following week. The sheet was adorned with swastikas, had messaging including “This is a White nation,” and called for deadly violence against Muslims, also using a slur to make a similar call against Chinese people.
The scrawlings also showed the phrases “MAGA 2028,” “No on 50” — referencing California’s Congressional redistricting bill voters passed the day before — and also called for deadly violence against then-newly elected New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Written on the wall near the sheet was a call for violence against Jewish, Muslim, Mexican and Chinese people, again using a slur for the last group, and foreshadowing, “Mass bombing 11/11 and 11/12 guess.”
An FBI affidavit — based on investigations by the agency and the University Police department — reaches far beyond the single criminal charge and implicates Fang as responsible for some or all of 20 similar acts dating back two years that prompted repeated campus unrest over potential violence.
The university has said Fang, a graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in data science, has been banned from campus in light of his criminal case, and denounced the threats, either charged against or linked to Fang, as having caused significant fear in the community. After several of the postings, the campus was sparsely attended.
Besides detailing the grounds for the criminal charge, the FBI affidavit serves as a prospective roadmap for a broader circumstantial case accusing Fang of using his keycard to enter assorted campus buildings a few hours before the discovery of a threatening message in a men’s or gender-neutral restroom.
After tying him to the Nov. 5 incident, investigators scrutinized Fang’s building access in relation to 21 times where similarly inflammatory and threatening messaging was written or posted in a restroom between October 2024 and this past May. They also contend that increased surveillance outside campus bathrooms observed him in the general proximity of three threatening restroom postings in April and May of this year.
University police interviewed Fang on May 20; according to the affidavit, Fang acknowledged being in the buildings but insisted that “he did not know anything about how the graffiti got there or who was doing it.”
The affidavit asserts that in one high-profile instance on Nov. 18, Fang used his campus keycard to access 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 said they did “not have evidence indicating an imminent or credible plan to carry out violence on campus.”
In 14 of the 21 instances, he accessed a building on the same day of but usually several hours before a sighting was reported, according to the affidavit. Three instances involved a restroom in the student union, which does not require keycard access.
The affidavit also reported that Fang contacted police to report a threatening message early on. On Oct. 30, 2024, a message on a restroom wall 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 was ordered to return to court Sept. 9.