A slew of vicious, “flash mob”-style attacks at Temple University left at least six students beaten and bloodied over the weekend, along with a cop and a police horse.
More than 150 teens, spread out in groups of 20 or 30, descended upon the campus at around 8:30 p.m. Friday — wreaking havoc for nearly two hours before eventually dispersing, according to NBC 10.
Temple spokesman Ray Betzner told the television station that the mob had been playing a “cat-and-mouse game” with officers throughout the night as they assaulted people who were walking around campus.
Security officials said the juveniles had coordinated a “meet up” on Instagram, with most of them gathering near the north Philadelphia university around 8 p.m., Philly.com reports.
The horde seemed to be targeting people at random during the attacks — pummeling them, destroying their personal items and even robbing them in some instances.
In one incident, a female student named Christina Laulette was beaten to a bloody pulp and hospitalized after a group of youths ganged up on her and two others.
“Her and her 2 male friends where badly beaten by a group of 30-40 black teenagers on their way home from the Temple football game,” her father, Joe Lauletta, recalled in a Facebook post on Saturday night.
“These sick animals held her down and kicked and stomped on her repeatedly,” he seethed. “Every part of her body is badly bruised. It makes me cry just thinking about it.”
During a separate incident, a 16-year-old male targeted a mounted Philadelphia police officer — punching his horse twice in the mouth as the cop tried to break up a crowd on a street corner.
It was the second assault on law enforcement that night, after a 15-year-old male knocked over a university cop who was chasing him on a bicycle earlier in the evening.
When all was said and done, as many as 50 teens were taken into custody — and four ranging in age from 15 to 17 were later charged with crimes, according to NBC.
The charges included aggravated assault, robbery, resisting arrest and assaulting a police service animal.