Police charge college students for ambushing US soldier in 'To Catch a Predator' TikTok scheme.
An 18-year-old woman allegedly attacked a 22-year-old soldier at Assumption University in Massachusetts after they agreed to meet.
Five Massachusetts students are accused of ambushing a soldier on their school campus after being inspired by a TikTok trend based on "To Catch a Predator."
On Oct. 1, a man was chased from a building at Assumption University by a group of nearly 30 students, including the five named in the criminal complaint, after being invited there by a student on Tinder, according to the complaint filed in Worcester District Court on Dec. 4.
Kelsy Brainard, an 18-year-old woman who invited the victim to campus, indicated her age on her dating app profile, according to the police.
Video footage showed that the victim was watching a baseball game in the student lounge with Brainard and there was "ample personal space between them," police said, minutes before the confrontation.
According to WCVB, the group of students allegedly set up a "deliberately staged event" in the student lounge to confront the 22-year-old man.
As the man was berated by the students who had appeared from hidden locations, he was grabbed and blocked from leaving the lounge. When he managed to escape, 25 people gave chase.
A minor student allegedly punched the victim in the back of the head, and another student slammed his head into the car door, leaving it unclear whether the man was injured.
The group returned, laughing and high-fiving, a few minutes later, according to the police complaint.
The father of the victim informed WCVB that his son is currently serving in the Army and was deployed overseas shortly after the attack.
According to police, Easton Randall, 19, and his peers were motivated by the popular NBC series "To Catch a Predator," in which host Chris Hansen confronted men who thought they were meeting minors for sex and turned them over to waiting police.
Randall stated that the group was profiting from a TikTok trend that mimicked the show, where individuals enticed a sexual predator to a location to assault, expose or report them to the police.
Isabella Trudeau, Joaquin Smith, Brainard, and Kevin Carroll are facing charges of kidnapping, conspiracy, intimidation, assault, and battery with a deadly weapon, according to WCVB.
The lawyer representing Carroll did not promptly respond to a request for comment, and the attorneys for the other students were not listed on the court docket. The four other defendants could not be reached for comment. The students are set to appear in court on January 16th.
Assumption University President Greg Weiner condemned the incident as "abhorrent and antithetical to Assumption University's mission and values" and stated that the school's Department of Public Safety promptly initiated an investigation following the alleged attack.
"The victim's status as an active-duty military service member makes this situation particularly sobering, as it serves as a reminder of the sacrifices made by those who defend our freedoms, including the opportunity to pursue a college education."
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