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Private college students in ‘To Catch a Predator’ TikTok trend targeting Army soldier plead not guilty

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Private college students in ‘To Catch a Predator’ TikTok trend targeting Army soldier plead not guilty

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Five students at a Massachusetts Christian college made their first court appearances on Thursday, accused of luring an Army soldier onto their campus using a dating app and attacking him in a “To Catch a Predator” TikTok trend.

The Assumption University students were arraigned on conspiracy and kidnapping charges in Worcester District Court on Thursday. Automatic not-guilty pleas were entered for Easton Randall, 19; Kevin Carroll, 18; Isabella Trudeau, 18; Joaquin Smith, 18; and 18-year-old Kelsy Brainard, whose Tinder account was used to lure the 22-year-old Army soldier.

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They are scheduled to appear again on March 28, according to online court records. A sixth student, a juvenile, has also been charged.

A relative of the victim told Fox News Digital that the 22-year-old deployed to the Middle East soon after the harrowing incident.

COLLEGE STUDENTS CHARGED WITH AMBUSHING US SOLDIER IN ‘TO CATCH A PREDATOR’ TIKTOK SCHEME: POLICE

Kelsy Brainard departs the courthouse after being arraigned in Worcester District Court in Massachusetts on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Brainard is one of six Assumption University students arrested in connection with ambushing a U.S. soldier as part of a “Catch a Predator” online trend. (David McGlynn for Fox News Digital)

The unassuming man was in Worcester attending his grandmother’s funeral on Oct. 1 before he agreed to meet with Brainard on Tinder that evening, he told police. The soldier later told Assumption University police that they “were going to try to hook up,” and that he “just wanted to be around people that were happy” after the burial service.

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Based on the messages he exchanged with Brainard on the app and shared with police and Brainard’s profile, which indicated that she was 18, there was “absolutely no evidence presented to indicate that [the victim] was seeking sexual relationships with underage girls” and was “using Tinder as it was originally designed … to initiate a hookup,” police wrote in charging documents obtained by Fox News Digital. 

A “mass” of 25 to 30 people emerged just minutes after the victim met Brainard, calling him a “pedophile” who “liked having sex with 17-year-old girls.” Before he was surrounded, the victim was sitting beside Brainard watching a game in a student lounge, and surveillance footage showed that they had “ample personal space between them,” and Brainard was “laughing and smiling.”

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT HONDURAN GANG MEMBER KIDNAPPED US WOMAN, ‘GIGGLED’ AFTER THREATENING TO SELL ORGANS: REPORT

Isabella Trudeau is arraigned in Worcester District Court in Massachusetts on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Trudeau is one of six Assumption University students arrested in connection with ambushing a U.S. soldier as part of a “Catch a Predator” online trend. (David McGlynn for Fox News Digital)

Surveillance footage showed the group encircling the victim and preventing him from leaving around 10:30 p.m., police wrote. The victim was able to break free, but he was chased by the “crowd that can clearly be seen using their phones to record the pursuit.”

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Police said the soldier was punched in the back of the head by a juvenile student who was not named in court documents, due to his age. Then Carroll slammed the victim’s head in his car door, according to court documents, and students kicked the victim’s vehicle as he rushed out of the parking lot. 

Carroll is facing an additional charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, according to court documents. 

WASHINGTON INMATE ACCUSED OF MOLESTING CELLMATE AFTER CHANGING GENDER, TRANSFER TO WOMEN’S PRISON

Joaquin Smith departs the courthouse after being arraigned in Worcester District Court in Massachusetts on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Smith is one of six Assumption University students arrested in connection with ambushing a U.S. soldier as part of a “Catch a Predator” online trend. (David McGlynn for Fox News Digital)

A few minutes later, the group can be seen on surveillance footage re-entering the building while laughing and “high-fiving” each other, police wrote. 

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Campus police became aware of the incident after Brainard reported “that a creepy guy came to campus looking to meet an underage girl.” She said that she had texted Randall, who “came down [into the lounge] to help [her] with a sexual predator.”

La Maison Francaise on the campus of Assumption University, where a 22-year-old soldier was allegedly lured via Tinder and attacked by students on Oct. 1. (Rick Cinclair/Telegram & Gazette / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

Although she said she met the “creepy” man on Tinder, she claimed that he “came [to campus] uninvited.”

Campus police were unable to find the alleged predator on campus, but they began reviewing security footage and interviewing students after they were contacted by Worcester Police about a man reporting an assault that took place at Assumption University. 

BLUE STATE VIOLENT CRIME VICTIMS ORDERED TO ADDRESS ‘TRANS’ CAREER CRIMINAL BY PREFERRED PRONOUNS

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Kevin Carroll is arraigned in Worcester District Court in Massachusetts on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Carroll is one of six Assumption University students arrested in connection with ambushing a U.S. soldier as part of a “Catch a Predator” online trend. He faces an additional charge for allegedly slamming the victim’s head in his car door. (David McGlynn for Fox News Digital)

Further investigation revealed that “a small subset of the larger group” – the students now facing criminal charges – allegedly “conspired with each other to lure the victim to the property and solicited assistance ‘to catch a predator’ via group texts.”

“The goal of the Tinder invite was to simulate the TikTok fad of luring a sexual predator to a location and subsequently physically assaulting him or calling police,” according to court documents. 

The accused students were all sitting together when Brainard was sending Tinder messages back and forth with the victim “when the idea of Catch a Predator came to mind,” Randall later told police. 

Easton Randall is arraigned in Worcester District Court in Massachusetts on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Randall is one of six Assumption University students arrested in connection with ambushing a U.S. soldier as part of a “Catch a Predator” online trend. (David McGlynn for Fox News Digital)

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“They all made suggestions and agreed what was texted to [the victim] and … the others joined the conspiracy knowing of the unlawful plan.”

Randall told campus police that “Catch a Predator was a big thing on TikTok currently, but that this got out of hand and went bad,” police wrote.

Joaquin Smith is arraigned in Worcester District Court in Massachusetts on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Smith is one of six Assumption University students arrested in connection with ambushing a U.S. soldier as part of a “Catch a Predator” online trend. (David McGlynn for Fox News Digital)

When the victim came to campus, one of the men simply texted the group chat that they “[had] to come down here” because they were “catching a predator,” which provoked a “rabid” response from the students, according to court records.

Assumption University in Worcester, Massachusetts. (Christine Peterson/Worcester Telegram & Gazette via USA Today Network)

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Brainard diminished her responsibility, records show, telling campus police that she “didn’t know what was going to happen” when confronted about the falsification. But police wrote that she was seen laughing and smiling on surveillance footage as the male students descended upon her Tinder match. 

Attorneys representing the six students did not return Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

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Boston, MA

How Boston Dynamics upgraded the Atlas robot — and what’s next

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How Boston Dynamics upgraded the Atlas robot — and what’s next


In 2021, 60 Minutes visited the offices of robotics company Boston Dynamics and met an early model of its humanoid robot, Atlas. 

It could run, jump and maintain its balance when pushed. But it was bulky, with stiff, mechanical movements. 

Now, Atlas can cartwheel, dance, run with human-like fluidity, twist its arms, head and torso 360 degrees, and pick itself up off of the floor using only its feet. 

“They call it a humanoid, but he stands up in a way no human could possibly stand up,” correspondent Bill Whitaker told Overtime. “His limbs can bend in ways ours can’t.”

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Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter told Whitaker that Atlas’ “superhuman” range of motion is keeping with the company’s vision for humanoid robots. 

“We think that’s the way you should build robots. Don’t limit yourself to what people can do, but actually go beyond,” Playter said. 

Whitaker watched demonstrations of the latest Atlas model at Boston Dynamics’ headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts. Rather than turning around to walk in the other direction, Atlas can simply rotate its upper torso 180 degrees. 

“For us to turn around, we have to physically turn around,” he told Overtime. “Atlas just pivots on his core.”

Boston Dynamics’ head of robotics research, Scott Kuindersma, told Whitaker that Atlas doesn’t have wires that cross its the joints of the limbs, torso and head, allowing continuous rotation for tasks and easier maintenance of the robot.

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“The robot’s not really limited in its range of motion,” Kuindersma told Whitaker. “One of the reliability issues that you often find in robots is that their wires start to break over time… we don’t have any wires that go across those rotating parts anymore.”

Another upgrade to the Atlas humanoid robot is its AI brain, powered by Nvidia chips.

Atlas’ AI can be trained to do tasks.  One way is through teleoperation, in which a human controls the robot. Using virtual reality gear, the teleoperator trains Atlas to do a specific task, repeating it multiple times until the robot succeeds.

Whitaker watched a teleoperation training session. A Boston Dynamics’ machine learning scientist showed Atlas how to stack cups and tie a knot.

Kuindersma told Whitaker robot hands pose a complex engineering problem.

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“Human hands are incredible machines that are very versatile. We can do many, many different manipulation tasks with the same hand,” Kuindersma said. 

Boston Dynamics’ new Atlas has only three digits on each hand, which can swing into different positions or modes.

“They can act as if they were a hand with these three digits, or this digit can swing around and act more like a thumb,” Kuindersma said. 

“It allows the robot to have different shaped grasps, to have two-finger opposing grasp to pick up small objects. And then also make its hands very wide, in order to pick up large objects.”

Kuindersma said the robot has tactile sensors on its fingers, which provide information to Atlas’ neural network so the robot can learn how to manipulate objects with the right amount of pressure.

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But Kuindersma said there is still room to improve teleoperation systems.

“Being able to precisely control not only the shape and the motion, but the force of the grippers, is actually an interesting challenge,” Kuindersma told Whitaker. 

“I think there’s still a lot of opportunity to improve teleoperation systems, so that we can do even more dexterous manipulation tasks with robots.”

Whitaker told Overtime, “There is quite a bit of hype around these humanoids right now. Financial institutions predict that we will be living with millions, if not billions, of robots in our future. We’re not there yet.”

Whitaker asked Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter if the humanoid hype was getting ahead of reality. 

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“There is definitely a hype cycle right now. Part of that is created by the optimism and enthusiasm we see for the potential,” Playter said.

“But while AI, while software, can sort of move ahead at super speeds… these are machines and building reliable machines takes time…  These robots have to be reliable. They have to be affordable. That will take time to deploy.”

The video above was produced by Will Croxton. It was edited by Scott Rosann. 



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Pittsburg, PA

Steeler, voted the cutest TSA dog in America, stars in downloadable calendar

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Steeler, voted the cutest TSA dog in America, stars in downloadable calendar






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Connecticut

Ten people displaced after Bridgeport fire

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Ten people displaced after Bridgeport fire


Ten people are displaced after a fire broke out at the 400 block of Washington Avenue in Bridgeport.

At around 5:30 p.m., the Bridgeport Fire Department responded to a fire alarm.

Upon arrival, firefighters located heavy smoke conditions after the fire was extinguished in one unit by the sprinkler system.

Nine units were affected, displacing ten people.

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There were no reported injuries.

The American Red Cross is working to help those who were displaced.



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