Oakland Hall is the dormitory where Alexander Song, a University of Maryland ... more >A student at the University of Maryland, College Park who in March was hospitalized after campus police said he threatened in online messages to go on a shooting rampage is now facing additional charges from the incident.
Alexander Song, a 19-year-old sophomore at the school, was charged with eight crimes on Tuesday, ranging from disruption of the school's operations to misuse of electronic mail, according to Maryland court records.
Mr. Song was hospitalized from March 11, the day after police were alerted to the threatening online messages, through Tuesday, according to University of Maryland police.
Campus police began investigating a series of threatening messages posted on social-media websites after they were contacted by three people on March 10, officials said. In messages posted on the social-media websites Reddit.com and Omegle.com that were forwarded to police, officials said Mr. Song warned people to avoid McKeldin Mall, an expansive courtyard on campus, and said he hoped he could "kill enough people to make it to national news."
No weapon was found in searches of Mr. Song's on-campus dorm room or his family's home in Fulton, Md., police said.
After a bond review in Prince George's County District Court on Tuesday, Mr. Song was released on his own recognizance, university police said.
He has been banned indefinitely from all the University of Maryland's grounds and is under home detention unless traveling to a doctor's appointment, said John Erzen, a spokesman for the Prince George's County state's attorney's office.
Mr. Song was also charged with making a false statement, making a false statement to a public official, two counts of telephone misuse, disturbing the peace and disorderly conduct.
"After we screened the case, these are charges we felt were appropriate," Mr. Erzen said.
A trial has been scheduled for April 10 in District Court, according to court records.
No attorney was listed as representing Mr. Song in court records.
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Andrea Noble is a crime and public safety reporter for The Washington Times. She can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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