School stabbing suspect to remain in jail
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — A white University of Maryland student accused of stabbing a black man on campus in a possible hate crime will remain behind bars after a judge denied his request for house arrest Monday.
The FBI is investigating the unprovoked stabbing of Richard Collins III as a possible hate crime. The suspect, Sean Urbanski, has belonged to a racist Facebook group.
Defense attorney William C. Brennan argued Monday that the 22-yearold should be allowed to live at home under conditions including GPS monitoring and alcohol abuse treatment while his case goes forward. The judge declined, for now.
Collins, 23, was stabbed early Saturday while visiting friends at the College Park campus. He had just been commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, and would have graduated Tuesday from Bowie State University, police said.
The killing was met with shock and fear on both campuses, which are near each other in suburban Washington. Bowie State, a historically black school, is having its commencement ceremony today in the same basketball stadium on the College Park campus where Maryland held its ceremony Sunday.
“If I’m a person of color I would certainly look at this as something that could happen to me. In fact, I know on Facebook our students are saying that,” said University of Maryland Police Chief David Mitchell. University of Maryland President Wallace Loh led students and families in a moment of silence for Collins at Sunday’s commencement. He called it a “senseless and unprovoked assault,” The Baltimore Sun reported.
“We are still in shock that a young man, so full of promise, should have his life cut short, so suddenly,” Loh said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends, and with the entire Bowie State University community.”
Mitchell said he asked for the FBI’s help after learning that Urbanski, 22, belonged to a Facebook group called “Alt-Reich: Nation,” where members post disparaging material about African-Americans and others.
“We are here to evaluate that as an ongoing concern with respect to whether or not this was a hate crime,” Gordon Johnson, special agent in charge of the FBI field office in Baltimore, said at a news conference Sunday evening.
Brennan told the judge that Urbanski, who appeared in court via a television feed, had “no prior criminal record.” The judge said his request for bond could be revisited at a later date.
Brennan and Urbanski’s parents left without commenting after Monday’s hearing.
A message left Sunday at a number listed for his home in Severna Park was not immediately returned.