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The University of Chicago has pinpointed a person of interest after a man allegedly sexually assaulted a woman at a rowdy frat party near the elite college’s campus as a braying crowd egged him on.
“A person of interest has been identified in connection with the reported sexual assault that occurred at a fraternity house near campus on the morning of October 11,” the college said in a notification to students Tuesday. “The individual is not a University of Chicago student or affiliated with the University. The University banned him from campus.”
But since the Chicago Police Department is actively investigating and charges haven’t been filed, “the university is not at liberty to disclose the name of the person,” the statement said.
The alleged assailant was locked inside a bathroom with the victim at the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity house near the Hyde Park part of the college campus in the early hours of Sunday morning, according to a report by the New York Times, citing the victim’s pal, Mia Lara, 21.
Lara said she lost track of the victim after they’d been dancing in the basement and her pal started kissing a guy.
Lara searched for the friend and eventually ended up outside a bathroom where a group of men were cheering by the door statements like “when’s my turn,” “let me in,” and “I want to go in there,” she claimed.
Lara claimed she got inside the bathroom and found her friend with her clothes pulled down and her wrists being held by the man she had been kissing as she said, “Make it stop” and “Get me out of here.”
The concerned friend chased the man down, confronting him outside the house about the alleged attack as he allegedly responded, “She wanted to.”
The college said it doesn’t have any official affiliation with Greek life, but the groups must still follow the school’s rules.
A spokesperson for the fraternity’s national organization said the suspect was not one of the chapter’s members.
“We do not believe that any AEPi members were involved in this horrible act, nor were they complicit with it,” Jonathan Pierce said in an email to the Times.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-330-0226.