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AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

Three young men attack two freshmen, police say

Three 18-year-old men – one reportedly carrying brass knuckles – allegedly attacked two freshmen on campus Monday night, according to police reports.

Freshman Lee Gautier said he left his room in Thurston Hall to go to the gym and noticed three black males watching him at about 10:15 p.m. Monday. He said he thought their activity was suspicious but kept walking.

“I crossed the street and they did too,” he said. “I was pretty sure that I had been followed at that point.”

When Gautier turned around to return to Thurston, he said one of the men started hitting him in the face. The MPD report stated that the alleged assailants were between 5’9″ and 5’10” and between 170 and 175 pounds, all wearing black outerwear, jeans and white shirts.

Gautier said after a few hits he started to run away and was not pursued.

The second assault occurred at about 10:30 p.m. in the archway connecting University Yard to 20th Street. Freshman Alec McCord said the lights in the arch were out and he didn’t see the three men until they asked him for money.

The address for the three alleged assailants listed in the MPD arrest book is for an all-male Howard University freshman residence hall. Howard officials either declined to say if the suspects were students or did not return phone calls from The Hatchet Wednesday.

The Metropolitan Police Department report stated their names as Jamain Parchment, Shameer Dante Loper and Glen A. Jones.

“One guy grabbed me and said, ‘Give me your money,'” McCord said. “I knocked the first guy over and ran.”

UPD picked up the suspects near University Yard at 10:45 p.m. After Gautier and McCord identified their assailants as Parchment and Jones, MPD officers were contacted to transport the suspects, according to police reports.

Loper was also arrested for allegedly possessing silver brass knuckles, which is classified as a “prohibited weapon” by D.C. law. MPD confirmed that all three spent the night in jail.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said no case has been brought against the three students in court.

Gautier said he doesn’t feel unsafe at GW, but is still a little shaken up by the event. “I’m just a lot more nervous,” he said.

A female sophomore was reportedly assaulted by a 28- to 35-year-old black male in the Academic Center about two weeks before the alleged incident Monday. UPD posted a crime alert around campus seeking information about the assailant, whom the sophomore said began choking her before she escaped.

-David Ceasar contributed to this report.

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