5 college students at a Massachusetts Christian faculty made their first courtroom appearances on Thursday, accused of luring an Military soldier onto their campus utilizing a relationship app and attacking him in a “To Catch a Predator” TikTok pattern.
The Assumption College college students had been arraigned on conspiracy and kidnapping costs in Worcester District Court docket on Thursday. Computerized not-guilty pleas had been 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 the 22-year-old Military soldier.
They’re scheduled to seem once more on March 28, in keeping with on-line courtroom information. A sixth pupil, a juvenile, has additionally been charged.
A relative of the sufferer informed Fox Information Digital that the 22-year-old deployed to the Center East quickly after the harrowing incident.
COLLEGE STUDENTS CHARGED WITH AMBUSHING US SOLDIER IN ‘TO CATCH A PREDATOR’ TIKTOK SCHEME: POLICE
Kelsy Brainard departs the courthouse after being arraigned in Worcester District Court docket in Massachusetts on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Brainard is one in every of six Assumption College college students arrested in reference to ambushing a U.S. soldier as a part of a “Catch a Predator” on-line pattern. (David McGlynn for Fox Information Digital)
The unassuming man was in Worcester attending his grandmother’s funeral on Oct. 1 earlier than he agreed to fulfill with Brainard on Tinder that night, he informed police. The soldier later informed Assumption College police that they “had been going to attempt to hook up,” and that he “simply wished to be round those that had been completely satisfied” after the burial service.
Primarily based on the messages he exchanged with Brainard on the app and shared with police and Brainard’s profile, which indicated that she was 18, there was “completely no proof offered to point that [the victim] was searching for sexual relationships with underage ladies” and was “utilizing Tinder because it was initially designed … to provoke a hookup,” police wrote in charging paperwork obtained by Fox Information Digital.
A “mass” of 25 to 30 individuals emerged simply minutes after the sufferer met Brainard, calling him a “pedophile” who “favored having intercourse with 17-year-old ladies.” Earlier than he was surrounded, the sufferer was sitting beside Brainard watching a sport in a pupil lounge, and surveillance footage confirmed that they’d “ample private house between them,” and Brainard was “laughing and smiling.”
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Isabella Trudeau is arraigned in Worcester District Court docket in Massachusetts on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Trudeau is one in every of six Assumption College college students arrested in reference to ambushing a U.S. soldier as a part of a “Catch a Predator” on-line pattern. (David McGlynn for Fox Information Digital)
Surveillance footage confirmed the group encircling the sufferer and stopping him from leaving round 10:30 p.m., police wrote. The sufferer was in a position to break away, however he was chased by the “crowd that may clearly be seen utilizing their telephones to document the pursuit.”
Police stated the soldier was punched at the back of the top by a juvenile pupil who was not named in courtroom paperwork, attributable to his age. Then Carroll slammed the sufferer’s head in his automobile door, in keeping with courtroom paperwork, and college students kicked the sufferer’s car as he rushed out of the parking zone.
Carroll is dealing with a further cost of assault and battery with a harmful weapon, in keeping with courtroom paperwork.
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Joaquin Smith departs the courthouse after being arraigned in Worcester District Court docket in Massachusetts on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Smith is one in every of six Assumption College college students arrested in reference to ambushing a U.S. soldier as a part of a “Catch a Predator” on-line pattern. (David McGlynn for Fox Information Digital)
A couple of minutes later, the group might be seen on surveillance footage re-entering the constructing whereas laughing and “high-fiving” one another, police wrote.
Campus police turned conscious of the incident after Brainard reported “{that a} creepy man got here to campus seeking to meet an underage woman.” She stated that she had texted Randall, who “got here down [into the lounge] to assist [her] with a sexual predator.”
La Maison Francaise on the campus of Assumption College, the place a 22-year-old soldier was allegedly lured through Tinder and attacked by college students on Oct. 1. (Rick Cinclair/Telegram & Gazette / USA At the moment Community through Imagn Photographs)
Though she stated she met the “creepy” man on Tinder, she claimed that he “got here [to campus] uninvited.”
Campus police had been unable to seek out the alleged predator on campus, however they started reviewing safety footage and interviewing college students after they had been contacted by Worcester Police a couple of man reporting an assault that passed off at Assumption College.
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Kevin Carroll is arraigned in Worcester District Court docket in Massachusetts on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Carroll is one in every of six Assumption College college students arrested in reference to ambushing a U.S. soldier as a part of a “Catch a Predator” on-line pattern. He faces a further cost for allegedly slamming the sufferer’s head in his automobile door. (David McGlynn for Fox Information Digital)
Additional investigation revealed that “a small subset of the bigger group” – the scholars now dealing with legal costs – allegedly “conspired with one another to lure the sufferer to the property and solicited help ‘to catch a predator’ through group texts.”
“The purpose of the Tinder invite was to simulate the TikTok fad of luring a sexual predator to a location and subsequently bodily assaulting him or calling police,” in keeping with courtroom paperwork.
The accused college students had been all sitting collectively when Brainard was sending Tinder messages backwards and forwards with the sufferer “when the thought of Catch a Predator got here to thoughts,” Randall later informed police.
Easton Randall is arraigned in Worcester District Court docket in Massachusetts on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Randall is one in every of six Assumption College college students arrested in reference to ambushing a U.S. soldier as a part of a “Catch a Predator” on-line pattern. (David McGlynn for Fox Information Digital)
“All of them made recommendations and agreed what was texted to [the victim] and … the others joined the conspiracy realizing of the illegal plan.”
Randall informed campus police that “Catch a Predator was a giant factor on TikTok at present, however that this acquired out of hand and went dangerous,” police wrote.
Joaquin Smith is arraigned in Worcester District Court docket in Massachusetts on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Smith is one in every of six Assumption College college students arrested in reference to ambushing a U.S. soldier as a part of a “Catch a Predator” on-line pattern. (David McGlynn for Fox Information Digital)
When the sufferer got here to campus, one of many males merely texted the group chat that they “[had] to come back down right here” as a result of they had been “catching a predator,” which provoked a “rabid” response from the scholars, in keeping with courtroom information.
Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts. (Christine Peterson/Worcester Telegram & Gazette through USA At the moment Community)
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Brainard diminished her accountability, information present, telling campus police that she “did not know what was going to occur” when confronted in regards to the falsification. However police wrote that she was seen laughing and smiling on surveillance footage because the male college students descended upon her Tinder match.
Attorneys representing the six college students didn’t return Fox Information Digital’s requests for remark.
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