LANSING, Mich. — A University of Michigan fan has been sentenced for threatening a shooting at Ohio State University, aiming to harm football players and then-head coach Urban Meyer.
Tuesday a federal judge sentenced the Daniel Rippy, 29, to one year and one day in prison.
Following the matchup between the two rivals on Nov. 24, 2018, Rippy, a Michigan native and Wolverines fan living in Livermore, California, used Facebook messenger to threaten the school, players and coach according to authorities. The Buckeyes had won the game 62-39.
That year, the game was held in Columbus at Ohio Stadium, which had a capacity of 102,082 at the time. Authorities went into a frenzy and tried to determine if there was an imminent threat to those at the stadium.
According to an indictment unsealed in late 2019, Rippy threatened “to injure or kill specific players, their family members and the head coach.”
In a Facebook message to the university, Rippy threatened a shooting saying “I’m seriously going to hurt the students and all of the players from the football team.”
“I really didn’t mean for any of this. I feel really bad about it. I would never, ever do any act like this,” Rippy said as part of his agreement for a lesser sentence.
Three days before the Michigan-OSU football game, Rippy, who is also a Duke Blue Devils basketball fan, made similar threats against Gonzaga University on the university’s Facebook page after the Bulldogs beat Duke 89-87 on Nov. 21, 2018.
“Yeah and when I get my hands on the players from the basketball team there going to die one by one,” Rippy said in the Facebook post. He later apologized to the school for that comment.
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