A UMASS student is in the fight for his life after an on-campus fight with two white men. Controversy surrounds the incident and some say it is yet another example of racial prejudice involved in legal matters. An excerpt from Campus Progress' feature is below
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On the morning in question, Vassell was in his dorm room in MacKimmie Hall with two other students, Lindsey Toper and Ashley Clancy, when they saw a white man looking in at them through the window. As Toper opened the window shade, the stranger started asking her to come hang out with him. She says she became “creeped out” by his demeanor, at which point Vassell went to the window and saw that there were actually two men. He asked them to go away, which is when the men yelled, “You’re a dirty nigger. Come out and fight,” according to Barbara Rutman, Vassell’s neighbor. Rutman said she was woken up by the screams.
Vassell responded, saying he wasn’t going to fight. At this, the two white men, Jonathan Bosse and John Bowes, smashed Vassell's window.
According to Clancy, who was in his dorm with Vassell, Vassell then called a friend, Vishan Chamanlal, for help and grabbed a pocket knife. Toper then called MacKimmie's housing office and “told them that the basement window had been broken but no one … [came] down to see what was going on.”
On her way to alert U-Mass housing staff, Toper saw Bosse and Bowes banging on the security door of the dorm, safely outside. But when Chamanlal showed up, Bosse and Bowes gained access by quietly following him inside, at which point they began screaming louder. Rutman attests that Jason “pulled out a knife and [told Bosse and Bowes] he didn’t want to use it and they should leave.” She says Bosse and Bowes continued to verbally assault Vassell and threaten him. To her “it looked like the first punch was thrown by the taller of the white males [Bosse].” A few things are certain: a fight broke out, Vassell’s nose was broken, and both Bosse and Bowes sustained minor stab wounds.
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Sergeant Moore took statements from both Bosse and Bowes, who claimed that the fight began outside when Vassell and an “unkown Latino male” began yelling racial slurs at them. They also said Vassell attacked them with a knife while wearing a ski mask. An Officer Greene would later note that Bosse and Bowes “smelled strongly of an alcoholic beverage and were slurring their speech when trying to give their statements.” According to hospital records, Bowes’ blood alcohol content was .18 percent and Bosse’s was .26 percent, well above the national legal limit for driving.
Continue reading Vassell's legal fight at Campus Progress
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