Three Syracuse University students were stabbed at approximately 1 a.m. Sunday, as four men tried to enter the Alpha Tau Omega house on Walnut Place, said Sgt. Tom Connellan of the Syracuse Police Department.

Police captured one suspect at the scene, Connellan said.

The victims were taken to University Hospital at 1:45 a.m. Ryan Saroya, 22, and John Tate, 19, were discharged Sunday. Nick Condit, 20, was discharged Monday, said the nursing staff at University Hospital. All three students are ATO brothers.

The suspect, Rashaun Cameron, 20, of Syracuse, was arraigned Sunday morning on two counts of assault in the second degree and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, according to Onondaga County Justice Center records. He is being held at the Justice Center on $20,000 bail.

Cameron and three other men tried to enter the ATO house Sunday morning through the front door, Connellan said. Condit was on the front porch, smoking a cigarette, and told the group they couldn’t enter through the front, he said. ATO had security at the side door, but not at the front, Condit said.

Someone from Cameron’s group shouted, ‘We’re the Alpha Beta Bloods!’ Tate told police.

The group moved forward and began to attack Condit, Connellan said.

At first, they punched him in the nose, knocking him to the ground. When he tried to get up, he was immediately hit again, Condit said.

Condit suffered four wounds to the armpit, lower back and right arm from Cameron, Connellan said. Condit said his lung was punctured in the attack, too.

‘I don’t remember feeling it at all,’ Condit said. ‘And it was just adrenaline, I just wanted to do something back. But they had a knife, you know, I couldn’t really do anything.’

Tate came to help Condit, and tried to take the knife away from Cameron, Connellan said. Cameron then stabbed Tate in the right shoulder, Connellan said.

Saroya arrived on the porch and was kicked in the face. He was stabbed in the waist and the left buttocks, Connellan said.

As Cameron’s group ran away, ATO members signaled to an SU Department of Public Safety officer driving by in a marked car. The officer chased Cameron down and arrested him on Harrison Street, DPS Chief Tony Callisto said.

The pursuing officer noticed Cameron toss a knife away, and police later recovered a knife near the 300 block of Marshall Street, Callisto said.

Police are investigating if there was a second stabber, or if Cameron stabbed all three. Police are searching for the three members of the group who got away, but have received few details on descriptions. Cameron has not cooperated with police, Connellan said.

Condit said he waited by a parked car for the ambulance to arrive.

‘I was a scared for a little while because I was losing a lot of blood,’ he said. ‘I had a nice little button-down, and it was just soaked with blood.’

Condit said the hardest part of the night came later when he had to call his parents. He called home several times, staring at 3:30 a.m.

‘The third time my little sister picked up, and that was hard because she is 12. I was like, ‘Cassie, you’ve got to find Mom and Dad, it’s very important.’ I didn’t want to tell her,’ Condit said. ‘My mom was just crying, upset. My dad was just pissed off. He just wanted to take it out on somebody.

‘I see it really as a freak thing. It could have happened to anybody,’ he said.

Condit said he plans to press charges against Cameron.

DPS did not issue an Orange Alert after the stabbing because they did not feel there was an immediate threat, Callisto said.

‘In this case, within literally minutes of the incident, the person was arrested and the weapon was recovered,’ he said. ‘Had we not found him or known that he threw the knife, we may have considered putting out an alert.’

A version of this story appeared on dailyorange.com on Sunday.

-Asst. News Editor Julia Terruso contributed reporting to this article.

adbrow03@syr.edu

Published on September 21, 2009 at 12:00 pm