A report by the Daily Caller has confirmed that the Erie County District Attorney’s Office will not be filing charges against individuals who allegedly assaulted conservative students in April 2022 following an event at the University of Buffalo (UB).
After former Republican Florida Rep. Allen West delivered a speech for the university’s Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) chapter, three group members were reportedly pursued throughout the campus by a mob of “50 to 100 people.”
Since then, police supposedly looked into reports of the three students being bullied for months by speaking with numerous individuals and looking through security footage, ultimately not coming up with any suspects.
The district office told the Daily Caller it “could not prove that a crime occurred beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.”
According to YAF, one student was forced to hide in the men’s bathroom and had to dial emergency services in order to find safety.
NEW footage obtained by YAF shows several hundred BLM protestors chasing @YAF_UB Chairwoman Therese Purcell off into a men’s bathroom.
She had to call 911 to be escorted to safety. pic.twitter.com/oK8onZbmWM
— YAF (@yaf) April 8, 2022
Police reports corroborated these claims, with the student who fled to the bathroom claiming that they had to ditch their shoes as it was not possible to “run fast enough with them on.” Another student said they were running from protestors, with a third alleging an assault.
Per The Spectrum, a third student reportedly was “kicked … in the testicles and punched … twice in the back,” with police not being able to locate the alleged assailant.
“Although numerous individuals could be seen on security video following students through the campus after the event, the intent to harass or cause physical harm by any specific individual(s) could not be proven by the available evidence,” John Della Contrada, a UB spokesman, said to The Spectrum.
New York state law stipulates that people who follow others in a public area are guilty of harassment should they have “intent to harass, annoy or alarm another person.”
Former YAF chapter chair Therese Purcell provided an account of the chaotic events, characterizing the actions of the “screaming” mob as “aggressive.”
“I am unbelievably disturbed that I was chased by a leftist mob and scared for my life on my college campus all for hosting Lt. Col. Allen West, a conservative speaker,” she stated. “I was aggressively chased by about 200 angry protesters and had to hide in a men’s bathroom from screaming leftists who were searching for me. The assault on free speech at University at Buffalo by an angry mob is incredibly unacceptable.”
