Salisbury University students are being charged with hate crimes after allegedly hitting a person because of their sexual orientation

CNN
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Twelve students at Salisbury University in Maryland are facing assault and hate crime charges after they allegedly targeted a man “because of his sexual preferences” and lured him to an off-campus apartment where they beat him, police said.

The students, all men ages 18 to 21, were charged with first-degree assault, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment and related hate crimes in connection with the Oct. 15 incident, Salisbury police said in a news release Thursday.

According to police, a man was invited “under false pretenses” to an apartment in Salisbury where a group of men surrounded him as soon as he entered, forced him to sit on a chair in the living room and then kicked him during the call. to hit and spit on him. He called him derogatory names, the police said.

One of the men met the victim on the LGBTQ dating app Grindr, pretended to be 16 years old and arranged to meet “for the purpose of sexual intercourse,” according to charging documents obtained by CNN affiliate WJZ present. The legal age of consent in Maryland is 16.

According to the charging document, police reviewed videos of the incident taken without the victim's consent and obtained from one of the defendant's phones.

Police allege that when the victim entered the apartment and closed the door, one of the students yelled “YEE YEE” and about 15 college-aged men emerged from the bedrooms and attacked him while shouting homophobic slurs, among other things him.

The victim told police he tried to leave the apartment several times but was “grabbed by several people and thrown to the ground,” the indictment states. The victim was eventually allowed to leave and discovered he had suffered a broken rib and multiple bruises to his body as a result of the attack, police said.

The alleged beating, which lasted about five to six minutes, came to light after two witnesses told university police on Oct. 29 that one of the defendants showed them a video of the assault, the document said. University police then contacted Salisbury police.

According to the document, cell phone videos retrieved from a defendant's phone led police to the victim and eventually other suspects.

“An investigation revealed the victim was targeted based on his sexual preferences,” Salisbury Police said.

Attorney James L. Britt, who represents one of the suspects, told the Baltimore Banner that the incident had nothing to do with the victim's sexual orientation.

“Once all the facts come to light, this case will prove to be an ill-advised attempt to expose someone willing to travel to have sexual relations with a 16-year-old child,” Britt told the Baltimore Banner.

CNN has reached out to Salisbury police for comment on the attorney's statement, as well as attorneys for some of the defendants.

Carolyn Ringer Lepre, president of Salisbury University, described the alleged attack as “truly horrific” in a statement to the student body.

“Acts of violence against LGBTQ+ and Ally communities are not only destructive, but also contradict the principles of community, respect and belonging that hold us together as a university,” Lepre said.

“These actions do not reflect the SU I know and love. A place where everyone should feel safe and free from harm. A place where violence is unacceptable.”

The university said the arrested students were suspended.

“This also includes not being allowed to enter campus and not being able to participate in academic courses in person or virtually,” the university said in a statement.

At least some of the students were members of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, which was suspended, the university said.

Grindr told CNN in a statement that the company is “ready to cooperate with law enforcement requests to assist in their investigations.”

“Grindr has always taken its role as an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community very seriously. We are aware that in certain cases, digital platforms like ours are being used to target LGBTQ+ people,” a Grindr spokesperson said in an email. “We have a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination, harassment and abusive behavior and work hard to ensure a safe and authentic environment free of malicious and fake accounts, scammers and bad actors.”

LGBTQ+ advocacy group PFLAG Salisbury said it was “appalled and disheartened” after learning of the “biased attack” against a member of the LGBTQIA+ community.

“PFLAG recognizes that the impact of this intentional, premeditated act targeting an individual based on his or her sexual orientation is impacting the Salisbury University campus, the Lower Shore and the state of Maryland, reinvigorating and amplifying fears and collective suffering will,” the organization said in a statement on Wednesday.

In September, the FBI released its annual report showing that hate crimes against the LGBTQ community are on the rise. In 2023, 2,402 incidents related to a victim's sexual orientation were recorded, compared to 1,947 the previous year.

CNN's Nic F. Anderson contributed to this report.