Three more Salisbury University students have been arrested and charged for their alleged involvement in a hate crime against a man on Oct. 15, Salisbury police said Thursday.
In a news release on Facebook, police confirmed the additional arrests, along with the identities of the three students: Sean Antone, 19, of West Friendship; Benjamin Brandenburg, 19, of Glyndon; and Logan Clark, 19, of Severna Park.
The three men have been charged with first-degree assault, reckless endangerment, false imprisonment and hate crimes, police said. Antone was taken into custody by Howard County police on November 7.
The arrests mean that fifteen students have been arrested so far in connection with the attack.
The alleged hate crime took place at an off-campus apartment in the 1400 block of University Terrace, where the group used the LGBTQ+ dating app Grindr to lure the victim “under false pretenses,” police said.
The victim said he didn’t call police after the attack because he “feared for his safety due to retaliation and because he was threatened by the attackers,” according to charging documents.
Charging documents say the victim was forced into a chair and then recorded being assaulted. At one point the victim had to read a weather report from a notebook. During the alleged assault, the victim was called anti-gay slurs.
In response to the arrests, Salisbury placed at least 12 of the students on temporary suspension, which is “the most severe form of discipline possible until the outcome of the criminal investigation,” Rhodes said in a Nov. 7 email. Students will no longer be allowed in the classroom, in person or online, in their residence halls or on any university grounds.
A fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, has expelled from its organization the students accused of involvement in the alleged hate crime incident, a spokesperson for the national organization said Monday.
