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Sometime over the weekend, a black student was walking with friends when "a group of four white individuals" in a car "yelled racist comments" at the student as they drove by, said University Police Chief Jason D. Schiffer.
The student briefly chased after the car before "he disengaged" and reunited with his friend group, the chief wrote.
Then, police say, the four suspects got out of their car and followed the group before assaulting the black student. "After an ongoing verbal exchange," a few of the suspects reportedly chased the group into a dorm building where they assaulted the student again, Schiffer said.
The student, who has chosen to remain anonymous, was not seriously injured during the attack, authorities noted. He and all witnesses are cooperating fully with detectives.
All four suspects left campus before police responded, and investigators say that none of them are students or even Bethlehem-area residents. They have been identified by police, who are "evaluating criminal charges or a potential restorative justice resolution," the chief said.
"These racist comments and hate crime are deeply disturbing and upsetting," Schiffer wrote. "They affect not just the students involved, but also other Black students and individuals in the Lehigh community."
"I understand the anger and the fear that our Black students, faculty and staff experience, especially following reports of events such as these," Lehigh Univesity President Joseph J. Helble wrote in a letter to the campus community. "I, too, am angry."
"I am committed to our campus being that place where every member of the Lehigh community studies, engages, and lives in an environment free from violence and free from hate," he continued.
"This must stop."
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