3 girls charged after Pennsylvania college students beaten by mob in caught-on-camera assault

Three juvenile girls have been slapped with criminal charges for the harrowing, caught-on-camera mob assault near the York College of Pennsylvania, officials announced Friday.
The charges against the suspects “range from felony riot to misdemeanor simple assault, defiant trespass and harassment,” York City Police Captain Daniel Lentz said during a press conference, where the girls were not identified publicly because of their ages.
Though the baby-faced defendants are being prosecuted through the juvenile justice system, which is mostly “focused on rehabilitation,” they will face serious consequences for the wild attacks, according to York County District Attorney Tim Barker.
“We absolutely will fully hold accountable the individuals that did this,” Barker vowed.
The chaos unfolded at around 1:50 a.m. Saturday after a mob of agitators allegedly invaded a group of female York College students’ off-campus home in the West Jackson Street area.
Several of the roommates were allegedly dragged by the hair, punched, kicked, maced and beaten unconscious after one of more than 100 mobsters that had gathered for an illegal street race became enraged at their request for the crowd to get off their property, one of the victims told Fox 43.
“After the first punch was given, all these girls started to rush us, and that’s where it kind of gets blurry because I think people were coming at me… I turn and see my friend get dragged by her hair down our porch steps and disappear. My other friend got dragged by her hair,” the unidentified student claimed.
Another victim told the outlet she blacked out at least twice during the assault, once when she was kicked in the ribs and another when she was struck in the head.

“I don’t exactly remember how I got out of it, but I was encircled by probably 30 people by myself getting video recorded while getting punched and kicked from every angle,” she said.
Terrifying video from the scene shows a blonde victim getting repeatedly pummeled as she lay on the ground while a separate group of assailants unleashed a barrage of punches on another girl outside the home, according to clips obtained by Fox 43 and WGAL.
Officials on Friday said they could not disclose exactly how many victims were left bloodied and bruised during the fracas, only confirming that it was more than one.
However, all injuries sustained during the madness fell within the legal definition of “bodily injury,” meaning they were not life-threatening, Barker said, adding: “We absolutely thank God for that.”
On Friday, Captain Lentz disputed claims that 911 was called several times even before the violence unfolded.
“Rumors have circulated that 4-5 [911] calls went unanswered. These allegations are not accurate,” he clarified.
Instead, “numerous calls were made simultaneously” to dispatchers at 1:49 a.m. and, two minutes later, two neighboring police departments were contacted to provide “mutual aid response,” Lentz said.
The York City Police Department previously said that surrounding agencies were called because, at the time, its own cops “were fully engaged in a previous, ongoing critical incident investigation.”

By 1:52 a.m., the first York City police officer arrived at the unruly scene, which sparked the crowd to disperse, Lentz explained.
Moving forward, the captain added, there will be a heightened police presence and a “zero tolerance” policy toward quality of life issues in the West Jackson neighborhood, just north of the university campus.
Barker warned that such “pop-up events” often spiral into savagery and threaten communities everywhere.
“Juvenile crime is an issue not only here in York City, not in York County, but across the country. The type of gathering that existed here, unfortunately all too frequently, results in violence rather than individuals enjoying an evening. And that’s what happened here,” he said.
“That is why we must be ever vigilant in going ahead and disrupting these types of gatherings anywhere and everywhere we can.”
Sources: NY Post