WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Six Massachusetts college students are facing charges after police say they assaulted a man who had been tricked through a d

College students charged in ‘catch a predator’ assault as seen on social media

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2025-01-11 22:30:06

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Six Massachusetts college students are facing charges after police say they assaulted a man who had been tricked through a dating app into visiting campus as part of a “Catch a Predator” trend on social media.

The man — an active-duty military service member — told police that he was in town for his grandmother’s funeral in October and began communicating with an Assumption University student whose Tinder profile said she was 18.

He said she invited him over, but when he got there, “a group of people came out of nowhere and started calling him a pedophile,” accusing him of wanting sex with 17-year-old girls, according to a complaint filed by campus police.

The man said he was grabbed but was able to break free and ran while being chased by at least 25 people. He made it to his car, where he said he was punched in the head and his car door was slammed on him, the police statement said. He fled and called city police.

Campus surveillance video shows the woman escorting him into a basement lounge, and then him running upstairs, followed by a large group of students, including the woman, “all with their cellphones out in what seems to be a recording of the whole episode,” the police statement said. A few minutes later, the woman and others are seen returning “laughing and high fiving with each other.”

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