Students in the ‘Catch the Predator’ trend targeting the soldier have pleaded not guilty

Five students of Massachusetts Christian College made their first court appearance on Thursday, accused of luring an Army soldier to their campus using a dating app and assaulting him in the “Catch the Predator” TikTok trend.

Students of Assumption University were accused conspiracy and kidnapping charges in Worcester District Court on Thursday. Automatic not guilty pleas were entered for Easton Randall, 19; Kevin Carroll, 18; Isabella Trudeau, 18; Joaquin Smith, 18; and 18-year-old Kelsy Brainard, whose Tinder account was used to lure a 22-year-old soldier.

They are scheduled to appear again on March 28, according to online court records. A sixth student, a minor, was also charged.

A relative of the victim told Fox News Digital that the 22-year-old left for the Middle East shortly after a harrowing incident.

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The unremarkable man was in Worcester for his grandmother’s funeral on Oct. 1 before agreeing to meet Brainard on Tinder that night, he told police. The soldier later told Ascension University to the police that he would “try to get back together” and that he “just wanted to be around happy people” after the funeral.

Based on the messages he exchanged with Brainard on the app that he shared with police and Brainard’s profile, which indicated she was 18, there was “absolutely no evidence to suggest that [the victim] solicited sexual relations with underage girls” and “used Tinder as originally designed … to initiate a relationship,” police wrote in charging documents obtained by Fox News Digital.

A “mob” of 25 to 30 people showed up just minutes after the victim met Brainard, calling him a “pedophile” who “likes to have sex with 17-year-old girls.” Before he was surrounded, the victim was sitting next to Brainard watching the game in the student lounge, and surveillance footage showed they had “plenty of personal space between them” and Brainard was “laughing and smiling.”

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Surveillance camera footage shows how the group surrounded the victim around 10:30 p.m. and prevented him from leaving, the police wrote. The victim managed to break free, but was pursued by “a crowd that can clearly be seen filming the chase with their phones.”

Police said the soldier was punched in the back of the head by a juvenile student who was not named in court documents because of his age. Carroll then slammed the victim’s head into his car door, according to court documents, and the students kicked the victim’s vehicle as it sped out of the parking lot.

Carroll faces an additional charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, according to court documents.

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Minutes later, the group can be seen on surveillance footage reentering the building while laughing and “high-fiving,” police wrote.

Campus Police became aware of the incident after Brainard reported “that a creepy guy came to campus wanting to meet a minor.” She said she texted Randall, who “came down [into the lounge] help [her] with a sexual predator.”

Although she said she met the “creepy” man on Tinder, she claims he “came [to campus] uninvited.”

Campus police were unable to find the alleged predator on campus, but they began reviewing security footage and interviewing students after Worcester police contacted them about a man who reported an assault that occurred at Assumption University.

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Further investigation revealed that “a small subset of the larger group” — the students now facing criminal charges — allegedly “conspired with each other to lure the victim onto the property and solicit help ‘to catch the predator’ via group messages.”

“The purpose of the Tinder invitation was to simulate the TikTok fashion of luring a sexual predator to a location and then physically assaulting him or calling the police,” the court documents state.

The accused students were all sitting together when Brainard was sending Tinder messages back and forth with the victim “when the idea of ​​Catch a Predator came to mind,” Randall later told police.

“Everyone made suggestions and agreed with what was ordered [the victim] and … the others joined the conspiracy knowing of the illegal plan.”

Randall told campus police that “Catching a predator is a big deal on TikTok right now, but this has gotten out of hand and gone bad,” police wrote.

When the victim arrived on campus, one of the men simply messaged a group chat that “[had] to come down here” because they were “catching a predator,” prompting a “furious” response from students, according to court records.

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Brainard downplayed her responsibility, records show, telling campus police she “didn’t know what was going to happen” when confronted about the forgery. But police wrote that she was seen laughing and smiling on surveillance footage as students descended on her Tinder match.

Attorneys representing the six students did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.