YORK, Pa. — York College students say a late-night crowd of non-students stormed their off-campus porch, dragged young women by the hair into the street, and beat one of them until she blacked out, while bystanders filmed and police, they say, failed to arrive until it was over.
The attack happened Friday night, Sept. 11, on the 300 block of West Jackson Street, just off campus. Local FOX43 obtained video showing a blonde student being pulled from the property and assaulted by a group of people she and her roommates did not know.
Students told the station they called 911 repeatedly before the violence started. A crowd had gathered amid street racing so reckless that one car smashed into a parked vehicle near a neighboring firehouse. Officers were told they were coming. They did not arrive until after the beating, according to the students.
“We called the cops four times before anything even happened to us,” one student, who asked not to be named, told FOX43.
She said an unknown woman approached the porch, started a verbal fight, and then the situation exploded. “After the first punch was given, all these girls started to rush us,” she said. “I turn and see my friend get dragged by her hair down our porch steps and disappear. My other friend got dragged by her hair.”
A second student involved in the attack gave FOX43 a written account. She said the group was inside making tacos when they first called police because people were loitering outside and they felt unsafe. After going onto the porch, they asked the crowd to get off the property. That, she said, is when the assault began.
“I was ripped by my hair off the porch. From then, I was dragged to the stop sign, and that’s when everyone jumped me. I was getting kicked by probably 12 people at the same time,” she wrote. She said she blacked out twice, once from a kick to the ribs and again from a blow to the back of the head, while “encircled by probably 30 people” who recorded the beating.
Students also said mace was sprayed on the porch and that one roommate was already in a knee brace from a sports injury when she was attacked.
They described the police response as late and chaotic. “It was kind of disorganized; they were set up on the street and were talking to us,” one student said.
The same students say this was not a one-off. They told FOX43 another student was attacked about two weeks earlier by what they believe was the same group of non-students. An arrest was made in that earlier case, they said, but the crowd kept coming back.
“The cops haven’t done anything to protect us, and campus safety hasn’t done anything,” one student said. “It feels like they’re scared to get involved with these people, but then it puts us at risk when they’re doing nothing.”
York City Police confirmed they are investigating the Sept. 11 incident and “on-going complaints of disorderly conduct in that area.” The department asked anyone with information to submit a tip at yorkcitypolice.com. No public announcement of new arrests in the Friday attack had been issued as of mid-September.
York College said the attackers were unaffiliated with the school and that the house sits outside campus-safety jurisdiction. The college said city police “initiated” the finding that non-students started the fight after being asked to leave, and it is offering affected students the option to move back into campus housing.
“Student safety is always the highest priority for York College,” the school said, adding it is in talks with city leaders about neighborhood security.
The students say talks are not enough. They want police to clear the recurring crowds on West Jackson Street before another night ends the same way: with young women pulled off their own porch while cameras roll and help arrives too late.
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