Exchange Student Posts Threat Against St. Thomas Aquinas College

Orangetown Police received a report from the security staff at St. Thomas Aquinas College at 11 p.m. Oct. 5 that they had received a threatening message against the college on a social media site.

The posted message said that a “massacre” was being planned.

Investigation by the Orangetown Police Detective Bureau revealed that the message was posted by a student at he college, Inigo Aldecoa-Tapia, 20, a foreign exchange student from Spain studying at STAC.

Aldecoa-Tapia was charged with the folowing:
1. Making a Terroristic Threat, a class “D” felony
2. Aggravated Harassment in the Second Degree, a class “A” misdemeanor

Aldecoa-Tapia was arraigned in the Orangetown Justice Court and held on $10,00 bail at the Rockland County Jail.

As a precaution while the incident was being investigated, the police and St. Thomas Aquinas security conducted a search of the college’s academic and residence halls.

The Orangetown Police were assisted in the investigation of this incident by the Rockland Sheriff’s Office Computer Crimes Task Force and Bomb Squad.