Police: Man threatened to shoot WCU student

New Jersey man, being held on $175,000 cash bail, said he would ‘shoot up the whole school if he had to’

WEST CHESTER>> An amateur hardcore rock musician from New Jersey who threatened to kill his former girlfriend is being held on $175,000 cash bail at Chester County Prison after being extradited recently.

West Chester University police said that Jamie J. Zannino had sent text messages to the woman, a university student who is also from New Jersey, in early December saying that he intended kill her and a male friend, and that he would “shoot up the whole school if he had to.” No police officer would be able to stop him, he vowed, according to a criminal complaint filed against him.

“Your dead (sic) … if you won’t be with me I’ll make you,” one of the texts read, stated WCU Detective James Kalavik in the complaint.

Zannino, 21, of Manchester, N.J., was arrested Dec. 8 by New Jersey police on a warrant signed the day before by Magisterial District Judge Marian Thayer Vito. He is charged with two counts of terroristic threats, three counts of harassment, and one count of stalking, all misdemeanors.

He was held on the warrant in Manchester until he was brought to West Chester to face arraignment by Vito on the charges Dec. 28. She set bail at $175,000.

Zannino is apparently a member of the local New Jersey hardcore band, When Blood Comes Ashore. His contributing to the four-piece band is listed on a website advertising for new members as “Screaming.”

The complaint was filed by Kalavik after another WCU officer, Jen Wolf, received a phone call from a concerned parent about the messages that her daughter was allegedly receiving from Zannino, identified as the girl’s ex-boyfriend. The victim, Molly Pfister, met with Wolf on Dec. 5 and showed her the texts, one in which he allegedly threatened to shoot up the school.

The messages also were directed at another student, identified as David Passen, who is a

friend of Pfister’s. In one text, Zannino said that he would mail Pfister her friend’s head and have a scavenger hunt for his body parts. On his Facebook page a photo was posted in early

December of a military figure, with the caption, “Always carry a knife with you just in case there’s cheesecake or you meet someone who needs to be stabbed.”

He also left phone messages threatening to harm her “over her college winter break when she would be returning home,” the affidavit states.

A preliminary hearing on the charges has been set for Friday. On a Facebook message posted on Zanninos homepage on Dec. 14, someone wrote, “Jamie is ok, hopefully he will be home soon to talk to everyone.”