In two separate but likely connected incidents on Wednesday evening, [two] students were confronted by a man who, after exiting a running car filled with at least three or four individuals, proceeded to shove the students as they were walking on campus. In an all-campus e-mail sent on Thursday, Public Safety (PSafe) Patrol Captain Tony Bostick described the suspect as an African-American male, approximately 6 ft. tall, in his late teens, with a slim build, and wearing grey sweat pants and a long sleeve shirt. The driver of the vehicle was described as a light-skinned male.

The first incident occurred at 8:40 p.m. on Lawn Ave. near the intersection with Home Ave., when a silver, four-door sedan slowed near a male Wesleyan student. The perpetrator exited the car and knocked the student to the ground, then returned to the car and fled the scene. A witness reportedly saw the incident from a neighboring window and wrote down the license plate number: 943XDZ, a Connecticut state plate.

Approximately 25 minutes later, a group of seven students, who were walking up Court St. from dinner at Iguanas Ranas on Main St., noticed that two cars were following them after they crossed Broad Street. Soon after, a man exited the first car and approached the group from behind.

“I noticed him behind us but I didn’t pay any attention,” said one of the students, who wished to remain anonymous. “I looked at the guy and he shoved me—and the next thing I I got slammed into a pole.”
The perpetrator then shoved another male member of the group.

According to the anonymous student, someone in the first car yelled something at the perpetrator, at which point he ran back into the car. As the car drove away, one window of the second car rolled down and an individual threw a plastic ball at the group, but did not hit them.

The anonymous student said that the attack showed that walking with a large group of people, instead of alone, does not necessarily guarantee safety. Although this attack was not malicious, the studen thinks such attacks could escalate.
“It’s just teenagers being bored,” he said. “And this [type of attack] is going to get boring for them. What happens when they move on from this?”

The all campus e-mail asks students to report any additional information about the incident to PSafe or the Middletown Police.