By Finn Lincoln, Anne Hayes, syracuse.com
Syracuse, N.Y. – Two Syracuse University students were arrested Wednesday after police say one of the students tossed a bag of pork into a fraternity on Rosh Hashanah.
Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said that the two students were charged with burglary as a hate crime. They were also charged with criminal nuisance, according to court papers.
The court papers filed by Syracuse police said the crimes were a “religiously motivated attack” on Zeta Beta Tau (ZBT), a historically Jewish fraternity.
Fitzpatrick said the attack is being charged as a hate crime because it happened on the Jewish High Holy Day of Rosh Hashanah, the food thrown was pork and ZBT is known as a Jewish fraternity.
“This incident is not a foolish college prank and will not be treated as such,” Fitzpatrick said.” “It will be treated for what it is, a crime directed against a group of Jewish students enjoying a celebratory dinner and seemingly secure in their residence.”
The students – Samuel Patten and Kyle Anderson, who are both 18 years old – were arraigned this morning in Syracuse City Court.
They are currently being held in the Justice Center Jail, according to county jail records. Their bail was set at $1500 by Judge Derrek Thomas, according to digital court records.
At about 6 p.m. Tuesday, Patten entered and remained in the dwelling with an intent to commit a crime, police said in a felony complaint filed in Syracuse City Court.
Patten, of Brooklyn, entered the threshold of the front door and threw a clear plastic bag of pork that hit a wall inside the house, police said in a news release Wednesday.
The contents of the bag splattered on the floor and wall of the house, court documents said.
“Jewish dietary law prohibits the consumption and touching of pork,” the complaint said. “The defendants’ actions did thereby create a hazardous condition and engender reasonable fear among the occupants that they were subject to a religiously motivated attack.”
Anderson, of Greenwich, Connecticut, dropped Patten off before the attack and drove him away after, the complaint said.
Patten was seen running from the home and getting into a Jeep Wrangler with a Connecticut license plate, police said. The Jeep was then seen driving down Walnut Avenue. The fraternity house is at 905 Walnut Ave.
The two were apprehended by the university’s Department of Public Safety and taken into custody by Syracuse police last night.
An SU administrator, in a statement to the university community, condemned the act, calling it abhorrent and shocking to the conscience.
“It will not be tolerated at Syracuse University,” SU Chief Student Experience Officer Allen Groves said in the statement Tuesday night.
The students involved have been referred to the university’s Office of Community Standards for potential disciplinary action under the Student Conduct Code, he said.
Rosh Hashanah is a High Holy Day in Judaism, marking the beginning of the new year in the Hebrew calendar.
In the Torah, pigs are listed among several animals that God forbids for human consumption.
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