“He was always very nice to society, well organized, helpful to my family and his classmates before 2021,” his father said. “He told us he lost his life goal and motivation … As parents, we tried to give him more love.”

Dai, who took two semesters off at the suggestion of a doctor, stopped communicating with his parents just days before his arrest.

“My wife called him or sent messages to him many times but got no answers. She was worrying that he may commit suicide and drove to his apartment to see what happened,”

“Public safety is my top priority."

 “Please contact his doctor for this question. It is too complicated....

a 12-time AP Scholar who also logged time volunteering at Rochester General Hospital

Dai states on his LinkedIn profile that he was heavily involved on campus, participating in Cornell Tech Consulting, CU GeoData and Cornell Mars Rover during his first years at Cornell. Dai also served as a consultant for CS 1112: Introduction to Computing: An Engineering and Science Perspective for multiple semesters and took on various leadership positions with the Science Olympiad at Cornell, including safety officer.

Dai served as a winter orientation leader in January and February of 2021 and subsequently became an orientation supervisor from March 2021 to February 2022, according to his LinkedIn. Dai wrote in his old Science Olympiad at Cornell biography that when not participating in extracurricular activities, he enjoyed playing tennis and video games.