PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Two Providence College basketball players were charged Monday with felony assault after what police and school officials said was an unprovoked, random attack on a male student.
Freshmen Johnnie Lacy, 20, and James Still, 19, were arraigned and released on $1,000 bail. The attack happened at around 1:30 a.m. Monday outside a store on the edge of campus, college spokesman Edward J. Caron said.
"There's no indication they even know each other," Caron said. "I think this young man was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Lacy and Still were suspended from school pending the outcome of a university investigation. Lacy was planning to transfer next year. No lawyer information for the players could be found.
Caron did not know what Lacy and Still were doing immediately before the attack, but he said a police report indicated the attack appeared to be random.
"The two individuals indicated they were going to strike the very first victim that came around," he said.
The victim was a senior and a residential advisor who is a native of Kazakhstan, Caron said. He did not identify the student, but said he was not in the same dormitory where Lacy and Still lived.
At some point, Still and Lacy met up with a third basketball player, identified by police as Murray "Duke" Mondy. Providence Police Maj. Thomas Oates said there was no evidence Mondy, a freshman from Grand Rapids, Mich., was involved in the attack and he was not charged. The school said it will investigate his role.
Still, of Detroit, a forward, won the team's "Lenny Wilkens Hustle Award" during its annual banquet Saturday. He averaged 1 point and 1.3 rebounds per game during his first season with the Friars, according to the team's Web site.
Lacy, of Milwaukee, a guard, attended Notre Dame Prep in Fitchburg, Mass. Providence College officials said they did not know where he planned to transfer.