UPDATE (6:30 p.m.): One of the attacks committed early Sunday morning included sexual assault, according to a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
Deshaun Busby, 16, was charged Thursday with numerous counts of gang assault, sexual abuse, and forcible touching in connection with an incident that occurred on W. 114th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, reports from the District Attorney’s office confirmed. The attack occurred at 12:20 a.m. Sunday morning.
A sixth suspect was arrested Friday in connection with the series of five assaults that involved seven victims, according to an e-mail sent to students by Vice President for Public Safety James McShane. The attacks all occurred within a block of the Morningside campus.
Please continue to check www.columbiaspectator.com for further updates.
Five teenagers have been arrested on charges of gang assault in connection with Sunday’s multiple attacks in the Morningside Heights area.
Seven students were assaulted in a series of five incidents, between 12:13 and 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning, all within a block of the Morningside campus. Victims were punched in the face or thrown to the ground, though Columbia Department of Public Safety said property was removed in only one instance.
Police said Tuesday that the attacks were perpetrated by seven males, confirmed by surveillance video and photos released. Only five suspects have been arrested for the assaults, and police said the investigation is ongoing.
“At this point, we believe that all of these assaults were committed by the same group of young men over an approximately 50 minute period,” Vice President for Public Safety James McShane said in a Wednesday e-mail to University students.
According to court records, Thomas Williams, 17, was arrested Sunday at around 1 a.m. and charged with two misdemeanor counts of assault with intent to cause physical injury. He was released from custody Sunday, only to be arrested again Tuesday for the same crime, but on a harsher charge of gang assault.
Williams, still in custody after failing to post $2,000 bail, will next appear in court on Oct. 20.
The other four suspects, arrested Wednesday, are 17-year-old Lawrence Jones, 16-year-old Quentin Cox, 16-year-old Jan Germosen, and 16-year-old DeShaun Busby. The four were arrested on charges of gang assault, police said. They had yet to be arraigned by press time.
Five out of the seven victims were Asians in their late 20s to early 30s, and all were walking either alone or with one other student. Jennifer Kushner, a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorneys office, would not comment on whether the case will be treated and charged as a hate crime.
“Right now ... the charge is gang assault, but the investigation is continuing,” Kushner said.
“A person is guilty of gang assault in the second degree when, with intent to cause physical injury to another person and when aided by two or more other persons actually present, he causes serious physical injury to such person or to a third person,” states the New York State penal law.
The attacks happened within minutes of each other at West 112th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, West 113th Street and Broadway, West 114th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, West 116th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, and West 120th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.
