The Providence Police Department has arrested two youths and obtained warrants for two others involved in the Sept. 10 assaults of three Brown and two Johnson & Wales students.
The University notified students in a Saturday e-mail.
According to the notification, three of the four involved youths are presently enrolled at Hope High School, and the other is a former student there. The youths involved are between the ages of 15 and 17 and will appear in Family Court on charges of simple assault.
The assault in question took place on Sept. 10 at approximately 3 p.m., around the time nearly 200 Hope High School students walk south on Thayer Street to the bus stop, according to a crime alert e-mailed to the Brown community at 7 p.m. that evening.
A large group of these students attacked two Johnson & Wales students near Hope High School at this time. The group of youths then continued down Thayer Street and harassed a Brown student, grabbing his book and throwing it into the air. The group of youths then assaulted two onlooking Brown students - pushing them to the ground and then punching and kicking them - and took items from the backpack of one of the Brown students.
The involved Brown students told officials the group of youths consisted of approximately 25 high-school-aged black and Latino men and approximately five or six black women. Mark Perry, a security officer with the Department of Public Safety, stated in the Sept. 18 e-mail that several people from this group, including those arrested or with warrants out in their names, were responsible for the attacks.
The investigation of these assaults was conducted by the Providence Police Youth Services Bureau and continues with the assistance of the Department of Public Safety and the assistance of Hope High School administrators, according to the e-mail.
