Three sophomores were charged Monday morning in connection with an assault on two men in early April.
College sophomores Bryan Warner and Nathaniel Koonce and Wharton sophomore Joseph Aigboboh, all 19 years old, are charged with assaulting a Penn doctoral candidate and his friend -- who is not affiliated with the University -- following a verbal altercation.
Penn Police Chief Mark Dorsey said that officers responded at about 4 a.m. to reports of a fight at Locust Walk and 37th Street.
Dorsey said that a police investigation revealed that the assaulted men were speaking loudly on Locust Walk, making comments that they said were aimed at each other.
Warner, Koonce and Aigboboh allegedly took exception to the remarks.
Surveillance camera footage showed that the three walked away briefly from the confrontation but then returned and assaulted the doctoral student and his friend, Dorsey said. The women continued walking and were not involved physically.
After police and medical personnel responded, they took the doctoral student's friend to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for treatment of cuts and bruises. However, the medics did not feel it was necessary to transport the students.
When the doctoral candidate met his friend at HUP, they decided to leave and go to another, undisclosed medical center due to the long wait at Penn.
At this facility, the friend received stitches. In addition, doctors treated the doctoral student for injuries resulting from the altercation, including a fractured right leg and ruptured right eardrum.
Dorsey said that the undergraduates were not immediately taken into custody because police wanted to conduct a thorough investigation of the incident.
The three declined to give statements to the police and hired attorneys. Through their lawyers, they arranged to turn themselves in at police headquarters on Monday. All three declined comment again yesterday.
They were then transferred to the Philadelphia Police Southwest and formally charged with simple assault, aggravated assault and conspiracy.
The preliminary hearing has been set for May 4.
Staff reporter Alanna Kaufman contributed to this report.
