Stony Brook cops: Student stabbed on campus
A Stony Brook University student has been arrested in the stabbing of another student on the campus early Saturday morning, police said in a campus-wide letter. Credit: Brittany Wait
A commuter student knifed a classmate on Stony Brook University's campus early Saturday, the school said in announcing the alleged assailant's felony arrest.
The students are friends, according to school officials.
Campus police said the stabbing occurred about 2 a.m. after an altercation between the two in the suspect's vehicle.
Richard Im, 25, was arrested at his Syosset home and charged with first-degree assault. He was being held Saturday at the campus police station but was to be transferred to the Suffolk County Police Department's Sixth Precinct, in nearby Selden, to await his first court appearance today.
The victim, whose identity was withheld, was admitted to the university's hospital with a stab wound in the abdomen. The school said he was listed in stable condition Saturday night.
The school said the incident occurred on the main campus, on Circle Drive, near the administrative parking lot. After being stabbed, the victim approached a security guard at the school's main entrance.
"The victim indicated that the assailant was known to him and fled the scene in a dark-colored vehicle immediately after the incident," campus police Chief Robert J. Lenahan said in a campuswide email.
Im was arrested midmorning at the family's home, where Wansu Im said his son was a senior majoring in anthropology.
He said police wouldn't give the family any details about the alleged attack.
"I'm trying to figure out what's going on here myself," Wansu Im said.
Most students interviewed Saturday on campus said they learned about the stabbing from Lenahan's email.
"For a university student to stab someone -- another student -- it's just mind-boggling," said Steffy Jean-Baptiste, 22, a sociology major from Bergen County, N.J. "You expect a level of safety on campus."
Patrice Bryan, 18, a junior majoring in Africana studies, said, "I'm going to wait until I hear more about the story before I decide if I'm going to be scared or not."
Bryan, from Canarsie, Brooklyn, added: "The city is more dangerous than here any day."
