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Five students in a Massachusetts Christian College made their first court appearances Thursday, accused of luring an Army soldier to their campus using a dating app and attacking him in a “To Catch a Predator” TikTok trend.
The Assumption University students were prosecuted on conspiracy and kidnapping charges in Worcester District Court on Thursday. Automatic not guilty pleas were entered for Easton Randall, 19; Kevin Carroll, 18; Isabella Trudeau, 18; Joaquin Smith, 18; and Kelsy Brainard, 18, whose Tinder account was used to lure the 22-year-old Army soldier.
They are scheduled to appear again on March 28, according to online court records. A sixth student, a minor, has also been charged.
A relative of the victim told Fox News Digital that the 22-year-old was sent to the Middle East shortly after the heartbreaking incident.
COLLEGE STUDENTS ACCUSED OF AMBUSTING US SOLDIER IN TIKTOK SCHEME ‘TO CATCH A PREDATOR’: POLICE
Kelsy Brainard leaves the courthouse after being arraigned in Worcester District Court in Massachusetts on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. Brainard is one of six Assumption University students arrested in connection with an ambush of a U.S. soldier as part of an online “Catch a Predator” trend. (David McGlynn for Fox News Digital)
The unassuming man was in Worcester attending his grandmother’s funeral on Oct. 1 before agreeing to meet Brainard on Tinder that night, he told police. The soldier later said Assumption University police that “they were going to try to flirt” and that he “just wanted to be surrounded by happy people” after the funeral.
According to messages he exchanged with Brainard on the app and shared with police and Brainard’s profile, which indicated she was 18 years old, “absolutely no evidence was presented to indicate that (the victim) was seeking sexual relationships with underage girls.” of age” and “using Tinder as it was originally designed… to initiate a connection,” police wrote in charging documents obtained by Fox News Digital.
A “mass” of 25 to 30 people emerged just minutes after the victim met Brainard, calling him a “pedophile” who “liked to have sex with 17-year-old girls.” Before being surrounded, the victim was sitting next to Brainard watching a game in a student lounge, and surveillance footage showed they had “ample personal space between them,” and Brainard was “laughing and smiling.”
Isabella Trudeau is arraigned in Worcester District Court in Massachusetts on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Trudeau is one of six Assumption University students arrested in connection with an ambush of a U.S. soldier as part of a trend in line “Catch a predator.” (David McGlynn for Fox News Digital)
Surveillance footage showed the group surrounding the victim and preventing him from leaving around 10:30 p.m., police wrote. The victim managed to free himself, but was chased by the “crowd who can clearly be seen using their phones to record the chase.”
Police said the soldier was punched in the back of the head by a minor student whose name was not identified in court documents because of his age. Carroll then slammed the victim’s head into his car door, according to court documents, and the students kicked the victim’s vehicle as he ran out of the parking lot.
Carroll faces an additional charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, according to court documents.
Joaquin Smith leaves the courthouse after being arraigned in Worcester District Court in Massachusetts on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. Smith is one of six Assumption University students arrested in connection with an ambush of a U.S. soldier as part of an online “Catch a Predator” trend. (David McGlynn for Fox News Digital)
A few minutes later, the group can be seen on surveillance footage re-entering the building while laughing and “high-fiving each other,” police wrote.
university police learned of the incident after Brainard reported “that a creepy guy came to campus looking to meet an underage girl.” She said she had texted Randall, who “came down (to the salon) to help her with a sexual predator.”
The Maison Francaise on the Assumption University campus, where a 22-year-old soldier was allegedly lured through Tinder and attacked by students on October 1. (Rick Cinclair/Telegram & Gazette/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
Although she said she met the “creepy” man on Tinder, she claimed he “came (to campus) uninvited.”
Campus police were unable to find the alleged predator on campus, but began reviewing security footage and interviewing students after Worcester police contacted them about a man who reported an assault that took place on campus. of Assumption.
Kevin Carroll is arraigned in Worcester District Court in Massachusetts on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Carroll is one of six Assumption University students arrested in connection with an ambush of a U.S. soldier as part of a trend in line “Catch a predator.” He faces an additional charge for allegedly hitting the victim’s head with his car door. (David McGlynn for Fox News Digital)
Further investigation revealed that “a small subset of the larger group” (the students now facing criminal charges) allegedly “conspired with each other to lure the victim to the property and requested help ‘to catch a predator’ via messages “group text messages”.
“The goal of the Tinder invite was to simulate TikTok’s trend of luring a sexual predator to a location and subsequently physically assaulting them or calling the police,” according to court documents.
The accused students were all sitting together when Brainard was sending Tinder messages to the victim “when he came up with the idea of To Catch a Predator,” Randall later told police.
Easton Randall is arraigned in Worcester District Court in Massachusetts on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Randall is one of six Assumption University students arrested in connection with an ambush of a U.S. soldier as part of a trend in line “Catch a predator.” (David McGlynn for Fox News Digital)
“Everyone made suggestions and accepted what was sent via text message (to the victim) and… the others joined the conspiracy knowing of the illegal plan.”
Randall told campus police that “Catching a predator was a big thing on TikTok currently, but it got out of control and went wrong,” police wrote.
Joaquin Smith is arraigned in Worcester District Court in Massachusetts on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Smith is one of six Assumption University students arrested in connection with an ambush of a U.S. soldier as part of a trend in line “Catch a predator.” (David McGlynn for Fox News Digital)
When the victim arrived on campus, one of the men simply texted the group chat saying they “(had) to get down here” because they were “catching a predator,” prompting an “angry” response from the students, according to the court. files.
Assumption University in Worcester, Massachusetts. (Christine Peterson/Worcester Telegram & Gazette via USA Today Network)
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Brainard diminished her responsibility, records show, telling campus police that she “didn’t know what was going to happen” when they confronted her about the forgery. But police wrote that she was seen laughing and smiling on surveillance footage as the male students went to her Tinder match.
Lawyers representing the six students did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
