Borough Police: Assailants were gang members

The Borough Police has released the names of three gang-affiliated men charged with aggravated assault in connection with an altercation at the Wilson College BlackBox on Friday, April 18.

Princeton residents Vonzell Kelley, 20, and John Hayes, 20, as well as Lawrence resident Bernadino Guervil, 21, were all charged with aggravated assault and each held on $25,000 bail.

The assaults occurred after a freshman woman declined to dance with one of the men, at which point the man hit her in the face and pushed her to the ground. Two Princeton students attempted to intervene and were themselves assaulted by all three of the men, according to a statement released by the Borough Police. After beating one of the University students as he lay on the ground, the three men fled the scene before being "apprehended a short time later by police," the statement said.

"Those three individuals are known by law enforcement to be affiliated with street gangs," Borough Police Lt. David Dudeck said of the assailants.

The three students involved in the incident were treated at the University Medical Center at Princeton. Kelley, one of the assailants, "also required medical treatment as he had several teeth knocked out during the incident," according to the statement.

University and student response

University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt ’96 called the scuffle an anomaly.

"We believe this is an isolated incident," Cliatt said, noting that the three men "sought entrance into this specific event" and did not come to campus simply "looking for something to do."

Some students expressed frustration that BlackBox staff did not check for University identification at the door. "They should take the steps to eliminate any townspeople from getting in if it's a students-only event," Chip Snyders ’09 said.

Marshall Everett ’11 blamed the University for not providing prospective students who were on campus for the second weekend of Princeton Preview with adequate identification.

"They decided not to check proxes because there were so many pre-frosh," Everett said. "I feel that was a very stupid decision by the University because the pre-frosh should have been expected to have an ID."

Cliatt confirmed that the BlackBox event did not check for identification because of the presence of a large number of prospective students but added that proximity cards, badges and lanyards were supplied to those students to serve as identification.

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The gang connection

Violent gang activity has been occurring in Princeton since long before Saturday's incident.

In September 2004, gang-affiliated Princeton resident Jean Mario Israel was murdered in Trenton. That November, Princeton High School was put on lockdown due to suspicions of gang violence possibly aimed at a student.

Public Safety acknowledges that there are gang issues in New Jersey, Cliatt said. To ensure that the University is prepared to deal with any gang problems that may arise in Princeton, Public Safety has undergone specific training about gangs and has worked with local police, she added.

Though Borough Police have said that the three assailants are affiliated with gangs, Dudeck declined to comment on their specific gang affiliations.

The Times of Trenton, however, reported yesterday that Kelley is a member of the Bloods gang.

Rachael Ferguson GS, a sociology student whose research had previously focused on gangs, said that individuals identifying themselves as members of local gangs may not actually be affiliated with national gangs.

"A lot of groups of kids will call themselves ‘Bloods,’ and they have absolutely no knowledge of the history of the organization," Ferguson said. "It's not like there is a national or even regional leadership structure."

Additionally, police often identify perpetrators as members of gangs out of misunderstanding or convenience, Ferguson said.

"Sometimes, it serves them to say that young kids are in gangs," Ferguson explained. "When [gangs] are new in an area — newly on the rise — the police department doesn't have a lot of experience, [so] you can't fault the police for misinterpreting something."

A violent history

This incident is not Kelley's first run-in with the law.

In September 2006, Kelley was one of three black suspects arrested in the beating and robbery of three Hispanic men, the Trenton Times reported. Borough Police had originally asked the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office to prosecute the attacks as "bias crimes" because they believed race to be a factor in the crimes, but the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office denied this request.

Kelley and two other individuals first robbed and the proceeded to beat three middle-aged Hispanic men, one of whom was riding a bicycle home from work when the assailants knocked him off, went through his pockets for valuables and then kicked him repeatedly as he lay on the ground, the Trenton Times reported.

— Staff writers Rachel Dunn and Leah Haynesworth contributed reporting to this article.