UPDATED: February 13, 2019 at 6:40 p.m.

Several students who attended the Friday night Ackerman Avenue party that ended in a violent assault early Saturday spoke with The Daily Orange about the incident in a series of interviews Monday and Tuesday.

The students’ accounts differ from statements released by the Syracuse Police Department and Syracuse University’s Department of Public Safety.

A statement signed as “Your Fellow Students” circulated on social media Sunday and Monday criticizing the two police departments’ handling of the assault case. Student Association on Monday night condemned DPS’ response to the situation and called the assault a racially-charged crime.

Three students were attacked in the assault, which was reported at about 12:40 a.m. Saturday, DPS has previously said.

Caleb Obiagwu, a junior in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, was one of the three students attacked at the party, he said. Obiagwu said four white people approached the porch of the house, and his friend Jair Walker went outside to see what was happening.

When Walker was on the porch, a white man yelled, “What’s up n*gger” at him, Obiagwu said. A fight broke out between Walker and two of the four white people, Obiagwu said. Obiagwu and Walker are both black.

Obiagwu said he ran outside to the porch after he heard people shouting Walker was in a fight. One white man and a white woman were hitting Walker, and Obiagwu jumped into the fight, he said.

He said the woman then struck him in the back of the head with what appeared to be a gun. When he turned around, she pointed the gun at his face and said, “I’ll shoot you,” according to Obiagwu.

He and Walker ran into the house after the woman threatened to shoot them, Obiagwu said.

Obiagwu later went to Crouse Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a concussion, he said. He left the hospital at about 4 a.m. Saturday, an Uber receipt shows. Since the attack, he has had migraines and trouble sleeping, Obiagwu said.  

Tyler Smith, who lives at the Ackerman Avenue house where the assault occurred, hosted the party Friday for her friend’s birthday, she said. Smith, who is white, said that when two SPD officers arrived to shut down the party between 11:30 p.m. Friday and midnight, they spoke differently to black students in comparison to how they spoke to her.

In an email sent to The D.O. on Tuesday, SPD Sgt. Matthew Malinowski did not confirm whether SPD spoke differently to students of color and white students.

“I can assure you that Officers from the Syracuse Police Department treat all victims fair and respectfully,” Malinowski said.

Smith and other students, in interviews with The D.O., said people at the party discussed issues of race and policing with the officers who came to break up the party.

Victoria Payne, a second year student studying social work, said she attended the party. She said SPD officers shut down the party late Friday night due to a noise complaint, and about 20 people remained in the house at the time of the assault.

Khari Brandes, a sophomore in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications’ Bandier program, also attended the party, he said. Brandes said SPD officers put in an “earnest and honest effort,” but lacked sensitivity when they initially came to the house.

“We had a conversation with the police about why they were there, about how we felt about the situation, and it was pretty civilized,” Brandes said. “(There were) disagreements, but civilized.”

Payne said she was upstairs when a fight broke out on the porch of the house Saturday morning, and she heard people yelling that a woman had a gun. People who were downstairs at the time of the assault told Payne that a white woman struck three students of color while three white men also attacked those students, Payne said.

Obiagwu said two of the four people on the porch attacked him.

“We all heard this noise, everyone was panicking and running in different directions,” Brandes said. “Someone said someone outside had this gun.”

Information released by DPS on Saturday, via email, stated that one woman attacked three students in the 800 block of Ackerman Avenue, possibly with a pistol. It did not specify the race of the suspect or victims. SPD released a statement Monday afternoon that said one white woman and one white man assaulted the three students. SPD did not note the race of the victims.

DPS also sent a campus-wide email Saturday morning that said the three students denied medical treatment at the scene. Obiagwu said police officers repeatedly asked him if he wanted to go the hospital. He told them he was fine, but later decided to go to the hospital, he said.

Payne added that people who saw the attack told both DPS and SPD that the attack was racially motivated, and that four white people were involved.

Malinowski on Tuesday said he could not confirm the students’ accounts, as the incident is being investigated.

People were still at the Ackerman Avenue house when DPS sent out an initial statement at about 1 a.m. Saturday, Payne said. That statement, called a public safety notice, mentioned only one woman as a suspect.

Payne said she and other students at the party were disappointed that DPS, in the statement, did not mention the three white men.

But in a Monday statement, DPS Chief Bobby Maldonado said the Saturday email reflected the “most current account” of the incident.

Payne added that she expected DPS to specify that the attack was racially-charged “because it’s important to know if people are going after students of color.”

“It made us all feel not cared about,” she said.

Brandes was hiding upstairs during the assault, he said, and in that moment he didn’t have much information about what was going on. He heard there was a gun, and that multiple friends were assaulted.

“(There) was the disconnect between us as mostly students of color and them as older white men,” Brandes said. “And I don’t think it was malicious at all, I just think there were some ways that they weren’t as aware of how they could affect that situation.”

Michael Larkin, a sophomore television, radio and film major, said he was at the party and slept over at Smith’s house after the assault because Smith would have been there alone.

At about 1 p.m. Saturday, Smith’s downstairs neighbor found the gun Larkin and Smith believed was used as the weapon in the assault, Larkin and Smith both said. The gun, found on the front lawn, they said, was actually a BB gun that looked like a real pistol, and it was given to police for evidence, according to Larkin and Smith.

— News Editor Kennedy Rose contributed reporting to this story.

CORRECTION: In a previous version of this post, Caleb Obiagwu and Jair Walker were said to have run away from the house after a woman threatened to shoot them. They actually ran into the house, according to Obiagwu. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

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Published on February 12, 2019 at 11:25 pm

Contact Gabe: gkstern@syr.edu | @gabestern326