Four Howard University students were attacked near Howard Plaza Towers Apartments residence halls last weekend. According to a police report, “[o]ne person was reportedly stabbed in the incident.”
One of the victims said, “I was prepared to die,” adding, “When I was on the ground getting stomped out, I just stopped feeling the pain at one point.”
The victims described their attackers as “a bunch of D.C. locals.” One explained how “It was like maybe 5, 10, 20…And one lunges at me, so I square up.” Another stated, “They just started kicking us, punching us…We were getting jumped.”
Two of the students were fortunate to escape, but some were left behind, including their classmate who was purportedly stabbed.
But where was campus security during all of the melee? One victim relayed, “He [the student] got stabbed in the back and he got just beat on by like 30 people, him by himself, and security looked at him on the ground, watched his body go limp, and just walked away. Didn’t call anybody; didn’t do anything.”
Another victim expressed similar sentiments about the unprovoked attack. “They basically watched my friend’s lifeless body on the ground and didn’t do anything about it,” indicating that he does understand that “little could be done when trying to stop a mob but questioned why the guard didn’t call for backup.”
In the aftermath, the campus police chief has announced that internal and external investigations are being conducted in connection with the incident.
Additionally, as a result of the internal investigation, one university police lieutenant has already been suspended on top of a third-party security contractor being removed from Howard’s campus.
Howard President Wayne A. I. Frederick, M.D., MBA wrote a letter to the university community following the mob violence, stating “I want to express my deep concern regarding reported acts of violence that have occurred on and around our campus over the last two days.” “Let me be explicitly clear,” he continued, “maintaining the safety and well-being of Howard University students is our first priority.”
Frederick said that the university is investigating the fight and the lackluster response by security, saying “We apologize to our students who expressed that our public safety response did not meet their expectations of support and assistance.”
In response, Howard University is planning a mass installation of more than 1,000 cameras on school grounds. The college also plans to “implement safety paths so students know which routes to take to make sure a security officer is within 100 feet.”