Three New York college students are being accused of making up a racially motivated attack and they now face multiple charges, according to officials.
Ariel Agudio, Asha Burwell and Alexis Briggs, all 20, were indicted by a grand jury on Monday each for third-degree assault and multiple counts of falsely reporting an incident, said the Albany District Attorney’s Office, CNN reported. Agudio and Burwell also face harassment charges, and Agudio got two counts of attempted assault.
In the incident, the State University of New York at Albany rallied behind the three, who are black, when they claimed that a group of white men and women attacked them on Jan. 30, 2016, on a city bus.
University President Robert J. Jones issued a statement in a letter, saying he was “deeply concerned, saddened and angry about this incident.” On social media, the term #DefendBlackGirlsUAlbany trended and the People of Color Caucus sent a letter out to support them.
University police said that after an investigation, there were no racial epithets against the women. Instead, they had assaulted another passenger and had falsely reported the incident.
