Five college students in Massachusetts are accused of luring a man to the Assumption University campus in a plot that the police said was inspired by the television show “To Catch a Predator” and a fad on TikTok.
The students were part of a larger group that chased the man from a campus building after he was invited there by a student on the dating app, Tindr, expecting to meet an adult, according to a criminal complaint issued in Worcester District Court on Dec. 4.
The campus police at Assumption University, a small Catholic school in Worcester, said in the complaint that the group accused the man of being a sexual predator, stopped him from leaving a student lounge and recorded the episode as part of a “deliberately staged event.”
Two students assaulted the man, the police said.
There was no indication that the man was trying to meet underage girls and the woman who invited him to the campus, Kelsy Brainard, 18, said on her Tindr profile that she was 18 years old, the police said. The police did not provide the man’s age.
Videos of the episode, which happened on Oct. 1, were shared among students and seen by the police, who said that minutes after the man arrived on campus, he was watching a baseball game on a couch in a student lounge with Ms. Brainard and there was “ample personal space between them.”
Suddenly, a large group of students appeared from hidden locations, the complaint said. The students berated the man “as a sexual offender,” grabbed him and blocked him from leaving the room, the police said.
He escaped, and as a group of about 25 people chased him, a male, who is not named in the court documents because he is a minor, punched the man in the back of the head. Once the man reached his car, another student slammed a car door on him. It was unclear if the man was injured or sought medical treatment.
The group of students had their phones out and were apparently recording the episode, according to the police, who also reviewed campus surveillance camera footage and interviewed students as part of their investigation.
“A few minutes later you see the group coming back in, laughing and high-fiving with each other,” the police said.
One of the students, Easton Randall, 19, told the police that the students had been inspired by “To Catch a Predator,” and videos popular on social media, the complaint said. It also said the group was trying to replicate a TikTok fad in which people lure a sexual predator to a location and either assault them or call the police.
The popular NBC series, “To Catch a Predator,” ran from 2004 to 2008 and featured undercover sting operations where men were lured through online chat rooms to a house where they thought they were meeting a teenager for sex.
The show’s host, Chris Hansen, would confront the men before they were arrested and ambushed by a camera crew.
Some criticized the show because of NBC’s relationship with the police and an advocacy group that helped orchestrate the stings. Questions were also raised about the value and ethics of sensationalizing an undercover sting targeting possible sexual predators.
One man killed himself as the police and a camera crew entered his home. NBC reached a settlement with the man’s family in 2008 after they filed a $108 million lawsuit against the broadcaster.
At Assumption University, the police said in the complaint that the scheme was devised by a “core group” of six students, five of whom have been charged with kidnapping and conspiracy, including Mr. Randall, Isabella Trudeau, 18, and Joaquin Smith, 18.
Ms. Brainard was also charged with intimidation and Kevin Carroll, 18, was accused of assault and battery with a deadly weapon. Mr. Carroll told police that he slammed the victim’s head into the car door, according to the criminal complaint, which did not address the student who is a minor.
A lawyer for Mr. Carroll did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday. Lawyers were not listed on the court docket for the other four defendants, who could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Assumption University president, Greg Weiner, said in a statement that the behavior described by the police was “abhorrent and antithetical to Assumption University’s mission and values.”
He said the university’s Department of Public Safety immediately began investigating.
“This situation is particularly sobering because the victim is an active-duty military service member,” the statement said. “His service reminds us of the sacrifices made by those who defend our freedoms, including the opportunity to pursue a college education.”
The students are scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 16.
