Five Massachusetts College students are facing criminal charges after allegedly luring a soldier onto their school’s campus to ambush him in a TikTok trend inspired by “Catch the Predator.”
The five were among a larger group of nearly 30 students who chased an unconscious man out of a building at Assumption University after he was approached by a female student on the dating app Tinder on Oct. 1, according to a criminal complaint written by campus police and filed in U.S. District Court Worcester 4th December.
According to the complaint, there was no indication that he was a victim intended to meet anyone underage. The woman who invited him to campus, 18-year-old Kelsy Brainard, listed her age on a dating app profile, police said.
La Maison Francaise on the campus of Assumption University, where a 22-year-old soldier was allegedly lured via Tinder and assaulted by students on October 1. (Rick Cinclair/Telegram & Gazette/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
Minutes before the altercation, police said, footage showed the victim watching a baseball game in the student lounge with Brainard and there was “plenty of personal space” between them, according to video of the episode shared by students and seen by police.
Regardless, a group of students allegedly cornered and confronted the 22-year-old in the student lounge as part of a “deliberately staged event”. WCVB reported.
Students emerged from hidden locations with their phones at the ready, filming as they attacked the man as a “sex offender,” grabbed him and prevented him from leaving the room. When he ran away, 25 people gave chase.
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One student, who was not named in court documents because he is a minor, allegedly punched the victim in the back of the head. After the victim reached his car, another student hit his head on the car door. It is not clear if the man was injured in the incident.
“A few minutes later, you see the group returning, laughing and high-fiving each other,” police wrote in the complaint.
The victim’s father told WCVB that his son is currently serving in the military and was deployed overseas days after the attack.
Easton Randall, 19, told police he and his peers were inspired by the hit NBC series “To Catch a Predator,” in which show host Chris Hansen confronts men lured to a house they thought were meeting minors for sex before handing them over, these people are waiting for the police.
Randall said the group cashed in on the TikTok fashion modeled after the series, in which people lure a sexual predator to a location to attack, expose or turn them in to the police.
Randall, Brainard, 18-year-old Isabella Trudeau and 18-year-old Joaquin Smith face kidnapping and conspiracy charges, WCVB reported. Brainard was additionally charged with intimidation; 18-year-old Kevin Carroll, who allegedly slammed the victim’s head into a car door, has been charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon.
On Thursday, May 21, 2020, construction continues on the Health and Sciences building at Assumption College, now called Assumption University. (Christine Peterson/Worcester Telegram & Gazette via USA TODAY NETWORK)
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Carroll’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and attorneys for the other students were not listed on the court docket. The other four accused could not be reached for comment. The students are scheduled to appear in court on January 16.
Assumption University President Greg Weiner said the incident was “heinous and contrary to the mission and values of Assumption University” in a statement and said the school’s Department of Public Safety launched an immediate investigation after the alleged attack.
“This situation is particularly sobering because the victim is an active duty member of the military,” Weiner wrote. “His service reminds us of the sacrifices made by those who defend our freedoms, including the opportunity to pursue a college education.”
