A U.S. college student who was caught on camera shoving a woman off the roof at a house party has pleaded not guilty to assault.
20-year-old Alexander Marquez is accused of pushing fellow Bridgewater State University student Sophia Czarowicz, also 20, off a garage during a rowdy off-campus party early on Monday morning.
Police say Marquez climbed onto the building, walked up behind Czarowicz and threw her off the roof towards the ground from a height of around 10 feet. The mobile phone footage appears to confirm that report.
Those on the ground were shouting and telling Czarowicz to jump but she says she had no intentions of doing so and didn’t know Marquez before he got onto the garage roof.
Thankfully, fellow party-goers below were able to catch Czarowicz and break her fall, so she only suffered minor injuries.
Prosecutors said the woman’s neck appeared to suffer “whiplash” as she was pushed, but Marquez’s lawyer has defended his client’s actions claiming he knew the large crowd and the grass would break their fall and insists it was an incident that occurred as a result of a college party that “got out of hand”.
Marquez’s girlfriend told reporters that by pushing Czarowicz, he actually helped her avoid landing on the ground, which is a pretty bold declaration!
In a statement, Bridgewater State University President Frederick Clark Jr said:
Our student code of conduct applies equally to off-campus as to on-campus actions. We will immediately begin our own inquiry into this matter and, based on our findings, will take any and all appropriate measures. Bridgewater State has a zero-tolerance policy for any acts of violence against any member of our university family.
