Dear SU Community Members,

On the morning of September 20, 2009, at 1:02 a.m., an incident occurred at the Alpha Tau Omega (ATO) fraternity house at 304 Walnut Place during which three ATO fraternity members were stabbed by a non

Typically, the Department of Public Safety issues immediate Public Safety Notice alerts only when there is an incident that poses a continuing threat to the community with a suspect at large. Although the suspect in this case was immediately arrested, DPS is providing an update in light of the severity of incident and additional information that is available at this time.

ATO and its members followed the rules set by the Interfraternity Council that require fraternities and sororities to only allow invited guests into their social events.

From the information and evidence to date, it is clear this incident was not gang related, and there was no prior connection between the perpetrator, anyone with him and the fraternity. This was an unprovoked attack. Further, the suspect arrested for this assault was the sole perpetrator of the stabbing. He remains in jail with a $20,000 bail.

A message about the incident that was issued on the SYR.EDU home page Sunday night, which includes more information about DPS’s response and steps that that are being taken to increase safety and security, can be found here: