Last month, students at the University of Rochester were shocked by news of two U of R football players being assaulted and kidnapped, according to the Democrat and Chronicle.
The two seniors, Ani Okeke Ewo and Nicholas Kollias, were apparently victims of mistaken identity by six or more assailants. The suspects were seeking retribution for a drug-related robbery that occurred at an off-campus apartment, which the two actually played no part in.
Criminal drug activity has been a continuously rising problem around the country and has led to many of these types of situations. Just in 2013, out of the 11,302,102 arrests across the nation for all offenses, an overwhelming 1,501,043 were for drug law violations.
During the 40 hours the victims were held hostage before being rescued by a Rochester police SWAT team, they reportedly endured severe beatings, as well as sexual assault. The kidnappers even went as far as to shoot Kollias in the leg with a .22-caliber rifle.
The assailants have now been charged with multiple counts of kidnapping, assault, robbery, and criminal use of a firearm.
U of R President Joel Seligman stated that new measures are being put in place to help avoid these issues in the future.
“Even before this review is completed,” he said, “let me today announce that I have authorized Public Safety to initiate a new patrol unit, which proactively will address drug, alcohol, mental health and other safety issues on campus.”
The trauma caused by these crimes may have also fueled two security drills that were conducted on U of R’s campus by the Rochester Police Department (RPD) and the University’s Department of Public Safety on Jan. 5.
The University of Rochester Newscenter reports that the two joint exercises held on River Campus were meant to test the crisis response capabilities and coordination among local response units.
The goal of two separate drills is to allow multiple emergency respondents shifts to participate, in order to ensure all authority figures are prepared for real crisis scenarios.
No Comment