Matt Spillane | Rockland/Westchester Journal News

Wochit

HARRISON - A student at SUNY Purchase College has been arrested after spreading "Nazi-themed posters" on campus, officials said.

Gunnar Hassard, 18, was arraigned in Harrison Town Court on a felony charge of first-degree aggravated harassment, according to the district attorney's office.

Hassard is accused of posting multiple flyers on the campus “frequented and utilized by members of the Jewish community…causing alarm, fear and annoyance to the members of the campus community during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah,” the felony complaint says.

The student "will be going through the student conduct process simultaneously," Dayton Tucker, chief of the college's police department, said, adding that he is thankful that people on campus reported the incident.

Westchester County District Attorney's Office

"By coming forward so quickly, those individuals were a great help to the investigation," he said. "I would also like to thank the members of the New York State University Police who worked diligently to bring the investigation to a close immediately."

The investigation included university police, the Westchester County District Attorney's Office, and the state police Hate Crimes Unit.

The posters were found on Sunday around the campus at 735 Anderson Hill Road. They apparently included images of Hitler and a swastika, Purchase spokesman Betsy Aldredge said.

{{props.notification}} {{props.tag}} {{props.expression}} {{props.linkSubscribe.text}} {{#modules.acquisition.inline}}{{/modules.acquisition.inline}} ... Our reporting. Your stories. Get unlimited digital access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement on Monday that he was "disgusted" by the posters.

"That this hateful act took place on the last night of Hanukkah when our Jewish community members were celebrating the survival of their religion, makes it even more reprehensible," Dennis Craig, the college's officer in charge and vice president for student affairs and enrollment management, said in a statement on Monday. "Please know that these posters, and any message of anti-Semitism and intolerance, goes against our core values of diversity, acceptance and understanding."

Matt Spillane/The Journal News

On Monday students expressed disappointment that the posters made their way onto campus.

"I just don't understand the mentality of anyone that would go out of their way to create and post" the posters, said Michelle Cavalieri, who said she was surprised that it happened on the campus.

Shane Luczyski, another student, said he had not seen a poster but had received the campus email about what happened.

"I think it's crazy," he said. "Wouldn't expect somebody in a college like this to do something like that."

This wasn't the first recent case of anti-Semitism on campus. Vadim Imperioli, whose father, Michael Imperioli, played hotheaded mobster Christopher Moltisanti on HBO’s “The Sopranos,” was arrested at the end of 2016 and accused of spray-painting a swastika in a dorm at Purchase College.