A 27-year-old Tucson man who threatened to commit a mass shooting at the University of Arizona last year has been sentenced to federal prison for 16 months. Michael Pengchung Lee, who is not a UA student, used incel references in his threats.
In a series of posts to a group Snapchat in October 2023, Lee said he was going to cause a "mass tragedy and atrocity" at the UA, according to court documents. In the posts, he said he would buy an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and focused his ire on the university's fraternities and sororities.
Lee also linked himself to Elliot Rodger, an "involuntary celibate" who murdered six people, including fraternity and sorority members, and wounded more than a dozen others in California nearly 10 years ago. "The day of retribution is upon us, I shall get revenge of all the chads and stacies," Lee wrote, according to the federal indictment. The phrases match the language of Rodger, and other incels—a misogynistic movement fueled by online discourse that has become real-world violence in several incidents in the U.S. and Canada.
In that social media thread, Lee said "im gonna do it guys, my mind is made up and there's nothing u can do or say to stop me," federal officials said.
After pleading guilty in April, Lee faced up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Márquez sentenced him Tuesday to 16 months behind bars, followed by three years of supervised release.
That period will include substance abuse testing, a mental health assessment, location monitoring, and a no-contact provision that precludes him from being on the UA campus, officials said. From the U.S. Attorney's Office:
UA officials announced Lee's arrest to students and staff in October. In an email, Steve Patterson, the UA's interim vice president and chief safety officer, said Lee was arrested based on reports to the University of Arizona Police Department. UAPD, with help from the FBI identified and arrested Lee for "threatening to commit a mass shooting at the University of Arizona." "The threats were made via group chat and contained additional threatening content directed toward Greek life," Patterson wrote.
Lee was initially booked into the Pima County Jail on state charges, including making a "terroristic threat."
Patterson said UAPD was first alerted to the group chat late on the evening of October 22, 2023, and the UAPD and the FBI "worked quickly to identify the suspect," Patterson wrote. "Once identified, the law enforcement agencies monitored the individual until his arrest about 24 hours after the initial report."
A former FBI agent, Patterson was tapped to help lead the UA's efforts to secure the campus in the wake of the fatal shooting of Prof. Thomas Meixner by a former student in October 2022. UA leadership was blasted by the campus community for their response in the weeks and months leading up to the shooting, and the Faculty Senate declared they had "no confidence" in UA President Robert Robbins and his administration.
UAPD Chief Paula Balafas was forced out, and Provost Liesl Folks was shifted to a new position. Patterson initially led UAPD and was replaced by interim Chief Chris Olson. The gunman in Meixner's death was found guilty of murder after a jury trial in May, and was sentenced last week to life in state prison.
In April, Olson said the guilty plea that resulted in the Lee case was "a wonderful example of our strong partnership" with the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona. 'I was gonna give u a warning but now im not'
According to court records, FBI agents reviewed data from the UA's license plate readers and learned Lee's vehicle was along the UA's Greek row on East First Street over a period of nine days, from Oct. 11 to Oct. 21 from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. As Lee continued to post, some group members began making screenshots and because of the app's design, Lee was able to see that.
"Fuck you stacies, I was gonna give u a warning but now im not," he wrote to women in the group. Lee allegedly said he was going to commit a "much worse crime." "It's a solo mission," he wrote, according to the court documents. "I'm not normal, I never have been, I'm severely autistic and mentally ill and was never accepted by society, I have no place in the world." When asked how he would commit the mass shooting, Lee said he would use an AR-15, but admitted he didn't have one.
"It's Arizona you can just buy one," he wrote. He also said he would purchase a gun "right before, so my mom doesn't find it." While Lee said he didn't know when he would attack the campus. In a final message, he said he might wait until May 23, 2024, because it was the tenth anniversary of Rodger's attacks, calling it the "day of retribution."
However, he also worried the UA would be out of session by then, the court documents said.
Last October, Lee was pulled over for speeding by officials, and he later admitted to being the author of the Snapchat threats, officials said. He also said he was "frustrated with his home life and decided to 'vent' to the group chat with his friends."
Lee said he was "aware the threats to commit a mass shooting were wrong and concerning," according to the indictment. He also said he was "a former member of the incel community but was no longer." On his Instagram page, he "identifies as a former incel," officials wrote. According to court records, he told officials he tried to purchase a weapon two months ago, "but decided against it."
