‘FABRICATED’

Cops: Students Made Up Racist Attack

Indicted for “false” claim.

Three students at the State University of New York at Albany, who claimed they were targeted in a racially motivated attack, are now facing multiple charges alleging it was fabricated. The 20-year-olds—Ariel Agudio, Asha Burwell, and Alexis Briggs—have all been indicted on third-degree assault charges and several counts of falsely reporting an incident. The three alleged in January that several white men and women attacked them on a city bus. Instead, police say the three women assaulted another passenger and then reported the violence incorrectly. Officials say surveillance footage from the bus led to the current charges. “What happened on the bus was not a ‘hate crime,’” University Police Chief Frank Wiley said. “The only person we heard uttering racial epithets was one of the defendants.”