Since he was beaten and robbed Jan. 27, a male first-year has faced hospital tests, court proceedings and accusatory rumors.
That night, three men — playing a game called “Victim” — followed, assaulted and robbed the student behind the Gate around 4:30 a.m.
Hit and run
The student was near the back door of the Gate when he was approached by two men with knives, he said. He was on his way home to Champlin Hall after falling asleep in a friend’s Wayland House room.
“They said, ‘Give us everything,’ so I pulled all my stuff out of my pockets and just threw it on the ground. I wasn’t going to fight back,” he said.
But the assailants were not satisfied, and a third man approached with a crowbar. He told the student to give up his wallet — but the student thought he already had, he said.
“He punched me in the face and I fell down. They knew I didn’t have anything, but they didn’t want me to remember anything,” he said.
The student said he does not remember much from after the punch, but he remembers more than one person stomping on his head — breaking his jaw.
“Nobody is really sure what exactly happened because I had cuts on my back and on my sides that could have been a knife, could have been anything,” he said.
The suspects fled to a car driven by a fourth accomplice, the student said. They left with all of the student’s belongings, including his cell phone and coat. Without a means to call anyone or get into his dorm, the student said he remembers thinking, “‘What am I going to do? I don’t have my key to my room. I don’t have anything, and I’m freezing.’”
Filling in the blanks
After stumbling around for a few minutes, the student saw his friend Prescott Smith ’16 through the window in the New Pembroke 4 kitchen, he said. Smith and Maya Code-Williams ’16 rushed out to him and quickly called the Department of Public Safety.
When an officer arrived with an Emergency Medical Services ambulance, the student gave a description of suspects and his cell phone number, he said. Minutes later, another officer on patrol noticed a red Mustang near the intersection of Brook and Lloyd streets with men inside matching the student’s descriptions, said Paul Shanley, deputy chief of police for DPS.
The patrolman pulled the car over just as the first officer called the student’s cell phone, which rang from the back seat of the Mustang, Shanley added.
DPS apprehended the suspects so quickly that the student was asked to identify the suspects before the ambulance took him to the hospital, he said. He said he was still dazed, so he could only confidently identify one attacker, who police officers later confirmed was Cranston resident Erik Pacheco.
Along with Pacheco, the police apprehended Manny Delgado, Alexander Mandeville and Chad Pelliccio, 18- and 19-year-old Cranston residents with no University affiliation, The Herald previously reported.
The student stayed at the hospital overnight and was treated for a concussion, broken jaw and multiple lacerations, he said. The hospital’s many tests for internal injuries came back negative, he said, but he was placed on a six-week liquid diet while his jaw healed.
The next day, the student was transported to the Providence Police Department, where he gave his official statement and learned that Delgado had confessed to the crime and provided more details.
“Providence Police found the entire thing on camera. They had been following me for 20 minutes,” the student said, adding that the men had been playing a game called “Victim,” in which they picked someone to follow and assault. “They weren’t quite doing it for money, but he said they needed money too.”
Since the assault, the student has appeared in court twice for bail hearings, accompanied by a DPS detective, he said. He may need to testify during the trial and sentencing, he added.
DPS has not needed to follow up on the case beyond accompanying the student to hearings, because the department has sufficient evidence to press forward, Shanley said.
The suspects face possible life sentences and minimums of 10 years in prison on the charge of first-degree robbery, which includes robberies involving “dangerous weapons” or resulting in victim injury, The Herald previously reported. The driver, Chad Pelliccio, is currently out on bail. The other three remain in custody awaiting sentencing, Shanley said.
Rumors and repercussions
In the aftermath of the incident, the student has dealt with the psychological and academic implications of his injuries, as well as the opinion of the student body.
He said the incident motivated him to take SafeRide more often.
“I’m definitely not walking out at night. At first there was a little bit of paranoia, and now at night when I do walk it can be kind of disconcerting,” he said. He added that DPS referred him to Psychological Services, but he decided not to seek help because he was feeling more comfortable.
The student avoids the scene of the crime and moved rooms because his overlooked the area, he said.
A dean in the Office of Student Life met with the student’s professors, who were “very understanding,” he said. The OSL allowed him to drop a class due to his concussion, though it meant he would only complete three classes two semesters in a row, which is against University policy, he said.
The student said he is now physically and psychologically healed, but the rumors he has heard people spreading about the incident frustrate him.
“I’d say the worst part of the entire thing was the community reaction to it,” he said. “I heard I got stabbed in the face after assaulting a homeless man. I heard I let a homeless man live in my room and that’s why I got stabbed.”
He said these false stories even spread to his former high school in Massachusetts after a friend heard one of them while on a campus visit. A tour guide used the student's name in a description of a rumored incident, and the student soon received accusatory texts and calls from his former classmates.
“Everyone thought I taunted some homeless man,” the student said. “Now I am just trying to set the record straight.”
This article was updated to remove the name of the student who was assaulted due to his concern for his safety.
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