About six years ago, in the fall of 2017, someone at Felician University called the local police to report that a member of the faculty, one Irfan Khawaja, had threatened to bring firearms to a faculty meeting later that day, with the intention of shooting it up and killing everyone there.

Soon after teaching my first class that morning, I was detained on campus by the police and taken to the police station, where I was questioned by Vincent “Vinnie” Quattrone, then the Chief of Police. Having gotten nowhere with me–I doggedly remained silent under questioning–Quattrone brought in the “big guns,” detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutors Office (BCPO) in nearby Hackensack, New Jersey.

The lead investigator from BCPO was a guy named Robert “Bobby” Anzilotti, then the BCPO’s Chief of Detectives. Anzilotti took me to a room in the back of the police station, and flanked by his colleagues, gave me a short speech about the need to “work things out like gentlemen.” He didn’t get anywhere with me, either. They locked me up for a few hours, but, for lack of evidence, eventually let me go.

Purely by chance, I happened to discover this 2021 story in The New York Times about Anzilotti, and about the last case of his illustrious career in law enforcement–the so-called Torso Killers case, perpetrated by the serial killer Richard Cottingham. I have to admit I’m impressed: it now occurs to me that I had no idea who I was up against. But then, neither did he.

For whatever it’s worth, I offer Detective Anzilotti my belated congratulations on breaking the Cottingham case.

And for whatever it’s worth, I should make clear that the accusations against me back in 2017 were false. I had no intention whatsoever of shooting up a faculty meeting.