2 students criminally charged after shouting racial slur on UConn campus

STORRS, Conn. (AP) — Two University of Connecticut students have been charged with shouting a racial slur outside a campus apartment complex in an incident that was caught on video and has led to protests at the school.

Jarred Karal, of Plainville, Ryan Mucaj, of Granby, both identified by police as 21-year-old white men, were charged Monday with ridicule on account of creed, religion, color, denomination, nationality or race.

The charge is a misdemeanor, which carries a possible sentence of up to a year in prison. Phone and email messages were left for the two students, who are due in court on Oct. 30. It was not clear Tuesday if they had hired lawyers.

Police believe the young men were among three people seen on the video walking through the parking lot of UConn’s Charter Oak Apartment complex on Oct. 11. Two of the three can be heard using the racial slur several times and laughing, police said.

“The investigation showed that the males walked back through the apartment complex after leaving a local business and played a game in which they yelled vulgar words,” according to the police report. “As they walked through the parking lot, Mucaj and Karal switched to saying a racial epithet that was heard by witnesses. The investigation revealed the third male did not participate.”

The incident was recorded by an African-American student from an apartment window and posted on social media.

On Monday, student organizations and the school’s chapter of the NAACP held a rally and march against racism across campus in response to the incident and another in which a student said she was the target of a racial slur at a party.

UConn President Thomas Katsouleas, who attended the rally, issued a statement in support of the arrests.

“It is supportive of our core values to pursue accountability, through due process, for an egregious assault on our community that has caused considerable harm,” he said. “I’m grateful for the university’s collective effort in responding to this incident, especially the hard work of the UConn Police Department, which has been investigating the case since it was reported.”

Katsouleas has scheduled office hours Friday at the school’s African American Cultural Center to meet with students who may wish to talk with him. He also has announced a nationwide search for a chief diversity officer at the school, which has a student population that is 60% white and just 6% African-American, according to U.S. Department of Education statistics.