Five Massachusetts college students are facing criminal charges for allegedly luring soldiers onto their school campus and ambushing them with a TikTok trend inspired by “To Catch a Predator.”
The five were among nearly 30 people who followed the man from an Assumption University building on Oct. 1 after he was asked out by a student on the dating app Tinder, according to campus police and a criminal complaint written by police. He was part of a student group. It was filed in Worcester District Court on Dec. 4.
There was no indication the victim intended to meet with a minor, the complaint said. Police said the woman who invited him to campus, Kelsey Brainard, 18, specified her age on her dating app profile.
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On October 1, a 22-year-old soldier was allegedly lured through Tinder and attacked by students at La Maison Française on the campus of Assumption University. (Rick Sinclair/Telegram & Gazette/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
Police said footage of the episode shared among students and reviewed by police shows the victim watching a baseball game with Brainerd in the student lounge minutes before the crash, and that “there was no communication between the two. The footage showed that there was “ample personal space.”
In any case, the group of students allegedly framed the 22-year-old man and confronted him in the student lounge as part of a “deliberately staged event.” Reported by WCVB.
The students emerged from a hidden location with their cellphones in hand and videotaped the man, calling him a “sex offender” and grabbing him and preventing him from leaving the lounge. When he fled, 25 people gave chase.
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One student, who is not named in court documents because he is a minor, allegedly punched the victim in the back of the head. When the victim arrived at his car, another student hit his head on the car door. It is unclear whether the man was injured in the incident.
“A few minutes later, the group returned and could be seen laughing and high-fiving,” police said in the complaint.
The victim's father told WCVB that his son is currently serving in the Army and was deployed overseas a few days after the attack.
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Easton Randall, 19, told police he and his friends were inspired by the hit NBC series “To Catch a Predator.” The show's host, Chris Hansen, confronted men who were lured into a home where he thought they were meeting minors for sex, and then turned them in. Those men went to the waiting police.
Randall said the group is making money off the TikTok trend, which is modeled after a show where people lure sexual predators to a location and assault them, expose them or hand them over to police.
Randall, Brainerd, 18-year-old Isabella Trudeau, and 18-year-old Joaquin Smith are charged with kidnapping and conspiracy, WCVB reports. Brainard was also charged with criminal intimidation. Kevin Carroll, 18, who slammed the victim's head into a car door, is charged with assault and assault with a deadly weapon.
Thursday, May 21, 2020 Construction continues on the Health Sciences Building at Assumption University, now known as Assumption University. (Christine Peterson/Worcester Telegram & Gazette, via USA TODAY NETWORK)
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An attorney listed for Carroll did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and attorneys for the other students were not listed in court dockets. The other four defendants could not be reached for comment. The students are scheduled to appear in court on January 16th.
Assumption University President Greg Weiner said in a statement that the incident was “abhorrent and contrary to Assumption University's mission and values,” and the school's Department of Public Safety immediately launched an investigation into the alleged attack. said.
“This situation is particularly disturbing because the victim is an active military member,” Weiner wrote. “His service reminds us of the sacrifices made by those who protect our freedoms, including the opportunity to receive a college education.”
