Twelve male students at Salisbury University in Maryland were arrested on hate crime charges after allegedly targeting a man on a dating app and luring him to an off-campus apartment where they attacked him, Salisbury Police announced.
Ryder Baker, 20, Bennan Aird, 18, Riley Brister, 20, Cruz Cespedes, 19, Dylan Earp, 20, Elijah Johnson, 19, and Zachary Leinemann, 19, were the first set of students charged with first-degree assault, false imprisonment and reckless endangerment in the attack of a unnamed victim on Oct. 15, according to the police announcement. They are also all facing hate crime charges.
On Thursday, authorities announced that five more students had beencharged with the same misdemeanor crimes, identifying them as Cameron Guy, 18, Jacob Howard, 19, Eric Sinclair, 21, Patrick Gutierrez, 19, and Dylan Pietuszka, 20.
Police say Leinemann initially contacted the victim on Grindr, a popular dating app used by LGBTQ+ individuals, while posing as a 16-year-old, according to charging documents obtained by CBS affiliate WBOC. Leinemann then allegedly lured him to the apartment on Oct. 15 with the promise of sex. The age of sexual consent in Maryland is 16.I’m