PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A group of teenagers attacked five college students in broad daylight last week – kicking, punching and verbally taunting them in two separate assault incidents police sometimes call “wilding.”
“A group of kids go around and think it’s cool to basically beat someone up,” said Providence Police Sgt. Dean Isabella.
The college students suffered minor injuries. University and city police were investigating; no charges have been filed.
The incidents occurred blocks away from each other on Friday at around 3 p.m. Police were investigating if the attacks were connected.
In one attack, two Johnson & Wales University students were jumped near Hope High School on Thayer Street, said Providence Police Sgt. Tabatha Glavin.
Sean Masters, 23, of Halifax, Mass., and David Morneau, 21, of Meriden, Conn., were walking to the house they share with four other college students.
They saw about 30 teenagers clustered at a street corner, and one of them yelled something about hitting a redhead, the Providence Journal reported. Morneau has red hair.
Masters said as the two friends walked off, one of the teenagers walked into him.
“I moved off the sidewalk and said ‘excuse me,'” Masters said.
He and Morneau picked up their pace as they walked on, hearing yelling from behind.
“Eventually about five of the kids caught up with us,” Masters said.
He said he was punched repeatedly in the back of his head, and when he tried swinging back, others came at him.
“I heard a sick crunching sounds from my face and blood started pouring out of my nose and onto my shirt, pants and feet and onto the sidewalk,” said Masters, who is 6 feet 2 inches and weighs 220 pounds.
Morneau tried to help, but the teenagers attacked him as well.
“I ducked and covered … they started pounding me in the back of the head,” he said.
Four passers-by called 911, police said.
Painters working on a nearby house saw the incident and ran to help.
The group scattered.
In the other incident, two Brown University students walking near the
university saw about 25 teenage males and five or six females harassing another Brown student, grabbing his book and tossing it in the air, said Mark Nickel, a university spokesman.
The group turned on the two Brown students who’d walked up. They were pushed to the ground and punched and kicked.
Nickel said the students were bruised and shocked, but not seriously harmed. Brown wouldn’t release the names of the students involved, and there was no report with Providence Police.
Nickel said Brown planned to investigate with help from the city police.
Glavin said patrols have been stepped up around Hope High School. It hasn’t been confirmed if the teenagers attend the school.