Tim Tai, Photo Editor

On Friday, Jan. 20, a female undergraduate student was assaulted by seven juveniles outside of Phelps Gate, across the street from the New Haven Green.

The community was first alerted about the assault four days later, when Yale Police Department Chief Anthony Campbell sent out a Public Safety Advisory email. Immediately afterwards, a screenshot of the email was posted on the anonymous chat app Fizz, to which the victim responded, thanking the Yale community for their support. 

The student who reported the assault told the News that she was on her way into Old Campus when a group of six to seven teenagers blocked her path. The perpetrators then both verbally and physically assaulted her, hitting her several times and smashing her head to the ground.  Campbell told the News that YPD responded to the incident at 10:41 p.m.

“There was a guy on a bike in a blue hoodie who stopped me and asked for a hug,” the student, who has been granted anonymity to protect her privacy, told the News. “It was a very weird request and I assumed it was one of the high-schoolers on campus for the [Yale International Relations Association] event just acting obnoxious so I politely said no and continued walking.” 

20 seconds later, she said, she felt one of the teenagers hit her in the back of her head. 

She turned around and was approached by another boy who witnessed the attack. Though the female student does not know whether he was affiliated with the perpetrators, she said he offered to help her. The boy then called the group of perpetrators back in order to confront them. 

The boy pointed out a girl in a white jacket who was walking away, saying she had been the one to hit the female student. The student then approached the girl to ask if she had hit her. According to the student, the girl said she had because she “just felt like it.”

The student asked what school the juveniles were from but did not receive a direct response. She then said she told the group they were “going to amount to nothing” before walking off. 

“I didn’t want to escalate it further, and especially not physically,” the student told the News.

According to the student, the group then turned to punch her in the face and shove her head into the pavement. The student said she was disoriented, and that her head and knee were badly hurt.

“People in the group then continued to kick and hit me and I didn’t want to retaliate because they were minors and I didn’t want it to look like I was the aggressor,” she said. “When it hurt too much, I grabbed onto one of their legs and scared them away.”

During the assault, the student recalled seeing a YPD police car parked on College Street. However, she said there were no officers in the car or visibly around the area that she could call over for help. 

She called her friends for help, who then called YPD. Officers arrived on the scene and brought the student to the Yale New Haven Hospital. She was discharged at 4:30 a.m. the following morning. 

In the wake of the incident, the student received support from YPD officers and the department’s Sensitive Crimes Coordinator, Sergeant Kristina Reech. The student told the News that both her Dean and Head of College have been supportive and understanding of her situation, as well as the Title IX and Student Accessibility Services offices. 

Of the seven perpetrators, YPD arrested and charged two, who were identified by the student. Both juveniles are being charged with criminal trespassing in the third degree, breach of the peace in the second degree, assault in the second degree, conspiracy to commit assault in the second degree and interfering with a police officer. 

“Both parties were issued a juvenile summons and were released to their parents who were with them,” Campbell said.

The other juveniles involved have not been identified or charged by YPD.

“They claimed the two people they arrested were the two involved in physically attacking me but honestly the rest were equally culpable and dangerous,” the student told the News. 

The student said she was also frustrated by YPD’s system of alerting the community about crime. Instead of sending out a “Timely Warning” alert right after the assault occurred, Campbell released a “Public Safety Advisory” email about the assault four days afterward.

Campbell explained that “messages from the chief” are based upon federal requirements from  the Clery Act which requires college police forces to issue a “Timely Warning” to the campus community when certain crimes occur within a particular geographic area. Those crimes must represent a serious or continuing threat to the campus.

“We review each crime that is reported to us and we use our best judgment to decide, on a case-by-case basis, whether to issue a Timely Warning,” Campbell told the News. “Given that the two juveniles who committed the crime and engaged in the violence against the student were apprehended in close proximity to the scene of the offense, a public safety advisory was the best resource in this instance.”

In response to the attack, Campbell responded that the New Haven Police Department and YPD have been deploying “more resources” in the area. 

New Haven Police Department Assistant Chief David Zannelli told the News last week that the department had not been informed of the assault.

The two juveniles arrested for the assault have court dates scheduled for early February.