UC Irvine police are investigating a hate crime after a group of teenagers on electric bikes hurled racial slurs at, spat on, and struck a Black student near campus housing last month.
According to the Orange County Register, the attack happened on Feb. 27 at about 8:30 p.m. near Arroyo Vista Housing on the University of California, Irvine (UCI) campus. The victim — a Black fourth-year student who asked not to be named for his safety — said he was walking home from a cookout with members of the Black Student Union when five teenagers on e-bikes approached him.
The student described the confrontation escalating quickly. As reported by NBC Los Angeles, the victim said one of the teens asked an inappropriate question about a sorority girl, and when he told them to leave him alone, another teen called him a racial slur. “I didn’t respond to it,” the student said. “I said, ‘Please, leave me alone.'”
The group then began chasing him. “They were close enough that they were spitting on me, trying to grab at me, trying to do all sorts of heinous things,” the student said. “I’m being called ‘monkey,’ ‘blackie,’ completely out of my name. Obviously, this is stuff I never expected to hear.”
One of the attackers accelerated an e-bike toward him and struck him on the back of his ankle. “It was the worst pain I had felt in a very long time,” the student said. He eventually ducked into the Rosa Parks dormitory for safety, where he called friends and then police.
Officers arrived after the teens had fled the area, but were able to detain one suspect at the East Campus Parking Structure nearby. It remains unclear what charges that teenager may face.
Campus police described two of the suspects. One was a white male, approximately 16 to 17 years old, about 5-feet-8-inches tall and 160 to 170 pounds, wearing a white T-shirt, black pants, and a black helmet while riding a black e-bike. A second suspect was described as a white male, approximately 14 years old, 5-feet-5-inches tall and about 190 pounds, wearing a black shirt, denim gray pants, white Air Force 1 Nike shoes, a black helmet, and a blue backpack, also on a black e-bike.
As KTLA reported, UCI released a statement saying the university “unequivocally prohibits acts of violence, intimidation, or property damage motivated by a person’s race, ethnicity, religion, disability, gender, or sexual orientation,” and that it remains “dedicated to confronting hate in all its forms and strengthening protections for every Anteater.”
Eunique Sherow, president of the Black Student Union, called on the university and its police department to do more. “We demand that these five juveniles be charged with assault and battery, and the one that clipped his ankle charged, and that they take more precautions to protect the Black students here on this campus,” Sherow said.
Amr Shabaik, legal director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Los Angeles chapter, also condemned the attack. “No student should have to fear being chased, assaulted, and subjected to racial slurs simply for existing in their own community,” Shabaik said. “University officials and law enforcement must conduct a thorough investigation, hold those responsible accountable, and take concrete steps to ensure that Black students feel protected and supported on campus.”
The hate crime investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information about the suspects is urged to contact UCI Police at 949-824-5223.
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