Man Who Threatened Mass Shooting At UCI Arrested Again

IRVINE, CA — A former UC Irvine student suspected of plotting a mass shooting on the campus in 2020 is behind bars again and facing new charges, the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday.

Sebastian Bogdan Dumbrava, 30, was arrested this week after he reportedly emailed a University of California official and an attorney to demand $50,000 days after his release from prison.

He now faces attempted extortion charges and a revival of previous charges, including charges for possessing a large capacity magazine, according to the LA Times. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held on $1 million bail.

He faces a prison sentence of four years and four months if convicted on all charges.

Dumbrava was originally charged with felony gun and ammunition charges in April after being convicted in March 2020, according to a previous Patch report.

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The charges came after Dumbrava made threats on Twitter and sent emails to UC Irvine officials throughout 2019 and the beginning of 2020. He was sentenced in March 2021 to three years and eight months in state prison, according to court records.

According to the report, the threats "referenced firearms, the Virginia Tech school shooting, the Virginia Tech active shooter and his self-identified six stressors that are common in active shooters."

Dumbrava also "made a comment about the possibility to acquire a firearm that can be used to indiscriminately massacre students," UC Irvine Police Detective Samuel Soon said.

Dumbrava was also arrested in January for violating the terms of his probation. Investigators said they found receipts from gun stores in Arizona that were kept in his mother's storage locker in Anaheim, authorities said.

After a brief incarceration, Dumbrava was released on Feb. 23 and ordered to report to his probation officer but failed to do so, prompting an arrest warrant for Dumbrava, who had been living out of his mother's car, Soon said.

Dumbrava called his mother on Feb. 28 from a phone that blocked caller ID. During the call she "begged" him to turn himself in to authorities, Soon said.

Dumbrava was arrested by Garden Grove police on March 5 and sentenced to 90 days in jail for the probation violation, Soon said.

“We charged this individual not once, but twice, with everything we could possibly charge him with at the state level — and it’s not enough,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer told the LA Times. “He’s going to keep getting out, and he’s going to keep making preparations to make good on his promises to carry out a Virginia Tech-style shooting at UCI.”