Qualities of a Morehouse Man (who attends Morehouse College in Atlanta) includes “resilience, grit, and an unwavering growth mindset that sets them apart as leaders in their communities.” He’s surrounded by fellow intelligent and supportive brothers and is an academic and professional success. However, one Morehouse student is accused of falling short of the college’s esteemed code after he allegedly assaulted a female student in a video that sparked online fury. Now, he may be in deep trouble.
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A Clark Atlanta University student identified as Kayla Bryant told police she was riding a Georgia State University school bus on Nov. 20 when a male and female passenger was getting a bit too handsy with one another, so she moved her seat, CBS News reported. When the couple exited, the CAU junior says the man stepped on her foot and refused to apologize when she confronted him outside of her off-campus apartment complex.
Bryant says she exchanged words with his girlfriend, who asked her, “Is there a problem?” That’s when, according to Bryant, the girlfriend put her hands in her face, pushed her and asked her boyfriend, “You got it, bae?” That’s when the incident escalated.
Bryant alleged that moments later, the Morehouse student “picks me up off the ground and starts strangling me. I couldn’t breathe, and I was kicking off the walls to gain balance. He was telling me he was going to kill me.” After the man can be heard on video screaming, “I’m not the one! I’m not the fucking one,” several witnesses broke it up as other filmed it. But it didn’t stop there.
The man can be seen on video going after Bryant again, telling her to, “Call 12! I bet you you die there!” He can also be heard asking her “where ya man at” and that he “promises to catch a body.”
Bryant’s video on social media recalling the altercation with footage from the incident has been viewed more than two million times.
Now, the suspect, identified by police as 21-year-old Matthew Gonzales Forestine, has been charged with aggravated assault and making terroristic threats, WSB-TV 2 reported.
Morehouse President Dr. F. DuBois Bowman said violence or threats of violence “have no place in the Morehouse community, particularly violence against women,” in a letter Nov. 23.
Clark Atlanta University President George T. French Jr. also released a statement Nov. 22. He said he’s “deeply concerned” by the incident and called the violence “unacceptable” and “intolerable.”
And the response online was just as condemning.
“Him and the girlfriend need to be penalized past the institutions,” @fARRINHEIT_ wrote on X. “That young man is in college ready to kill someone is very alarming to what his future will be.”
“What he did to this girl, he’ll later do same to his girlfriend,” @TweetyB42663429 commented on X.
@CertifiedBIGKAS added, “That is sad asf that us woman have to go thru that like men will put they hands on a female before they put they hands on a man.”
Bryant posted a follow-up TikTok video with the text: “A stranger tried to take my life today. But, god gave me two good hands and feet so thats cool.”
She also posted a TikTok of her wearing a crown while celebrating her 23rd birthday on Monday. Bryant also thanked viewers for their support, how thankful she was for the witnesses who helped her and clarified how she doesn’t “profit” from her online videos after her initial TikTok went viral.
According to The Maroon Tiger, Morehouse’s student-run newspaper, Forestine’s girlfriend updated her Instagram bio to say she would be “posting my side soon.”
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