Details about stalking suspect’s mass shooting plan at Iowa State graduation revealed in court documents

A Nevada, Iowa man accused of threatening a mass shooting at Iowa State University has now been charged federally in the case.

Tanner Bandy is charged with stalking his ex-girlfriend, who he had dated for about 10 years. Federal court documents said the pair broke up in October of 2024. The documents claim Bandy sent multiple threatening text and voice messages to the victim between January 26th and April 15th in 2025. Among them were threats to beat the victim and murder her by shooting her in the head.

Some of the messages contained threats of a mass shooting at the ISU commencement ceremony at C.Y. Stephens Auditorium on May 16th, 2025. The criminal complaint said the victim was graduating at the ceremony.

According to the complaint, on April 16th the Iowa DNR notified Iowa State University Police about an individual shooting at a printed-out Facebook photo of a person at an Iowa City shooting range. Bandy’s vehicle was spotted by a license plate reader as being in Iowa City around the time of the incident. The vehicle and gun described as being seen at the shooting range were similar to those owned by Bandy

Read more: WHO-13 (Des Moines, IA)