Jalique Rosemond: Kennesaw student attacked by two White men who threatened to 'rip out his dreads'
KENNESAW, GEORGIA: Police are trying to determine those responsible for attacking a Kennesaw State University student over the weekend outside of his off-campus home. Jalique Rosemond, a Black student, reportedly claimed that two young unidentified White men attacked him, beat him up and hurled racial expletives at him on Saturday, January 21.
The KSU student claimed that he drove around a small group of young men who were standing in the parking lot, found a spot, and got out of his car. His attackers left after they realized he had to go to a hospital. He claimed that it was a terrifying, maybe fatal encounter that ended in a matter of seconds, as reported by MSN.
READ MORE
Who is Sophia Rosing? 22-year-old racist University of Kentucky student assaults 2 Black students
Right before midnight, after doing his part-time job as a Door Dash driver, Rosemond claimed he was returning to his apartment building, West 22 Apartments. “They were hitting me, they stomped on me,” Rosemond reportedly said on Wednesday, January 25. He added, “As they’re beating me they’re referring to me as Black boy, boy, [N-Word], constantly saying racial slurs as they’re attacking me."
Rosemond added that the men knocked him to the ground and kicked him in the face, fracturing his nose. He fled behind a vehicle parked in the middle of the parking lot during the incident. “As one holds onto me, the other one approaches me and he says, ‘rip out that [expletive] dreads,’” Rosemond said.
Rosemond sprinted the short distance to his first-floor apartment, and hammered on the window, begging his roommate for assistance. "He was bleeding and his nose was fractured," his roommate, Emmanuel Osakwe, said. He added that Rosemond's alleged assailants got into the Jeep with two others and drove away, but not before throwing Rosemond's backpack into a tree and his keys beneath one of the cars in the parking lot, as per 11 Alive.
Osakwe and Rosemond claimed they then discovered that one of the white males had allegedly told police that an eye witness claimed Rosemond had attempted to plow into a White man in the parking lot while he was making his way home. “They said that I was driving recklessly in the neighborhood and hit their fraternity brother, which is completely wrong, that’s completely not true,” Rosemond reportedly said, adding, “Because I consciously moved around them because I did see them in the middle of the road.”
A witness also reported to police that one of the White men stated Rosemond had a pistol. “Nobody here owns a gun,” Osakwe said. According to Rosemond, he never carried a gun when working or at any other time. “Call it what it is -- it’s a hate crime,” Osakwe said, adding, “It has to be. I can’t sugar coat it, because somebody came home after a long day’s work and got attacked at their car.”
Rosemond, a student at KSU's Coles College of Business, is pursuing his dream of becoming an entrepreneur and hopes authorities may have access to all of the security camera footage from the apartment building so they can nab the perps.
“I want them to be charged with assault, I want them to be charged with discrimination,” he said, adding, “This was a pure hate crime. I’m blessed to be able to share this and give everybody the understanding that this is still the world that we live in, and I know it’s not everybody. I’m grateful that I’m able to tell my story because there are people that went through (something like) this and haven’t been able to tell their story.”
Part of the altercation outside Rosemond's apartment has captured on security camera video from late Saturday, January 21 night. Police are still investigating and have not classified this as a hate crime. Anyone who witnessed anything or knows who attacked Rosemond is asked to contact Detective Amica at the Kennesaw Police Department at 770-429-4533.