Ani Okeke Ewo and Nicholas Kollias of the University of Rochester were found last night by a SWAT team after they had been kidnapped on Saturday. The students were last seen at 2:00 a.m. Saturday and were reported missing on Saturday evening. They were abducted and held against their will, and four people have been arrested and are likely to face kidnapping and assault charges, reported ABC News. Further details on the circumstances of the abductions are not yet known.
Both students were wounded, one having been shot in the leg, and are now recovering in a hospital with their families. They were found and rescued by the SWAT team at 9:20 p.m. Sunday night in a house on Harvest St. in Rochester, reported The New York Post.
Late sunday night, a press conference was held where Joel Seligman, president of the university, said "the two University of Rochester students who were wrongfully held, for many, many hours have been successfully recovered, are healthy, are alive. There is a collective sense of relief tonight that all of us feel. This could have turned out in a very different way," reported ABC News.
Rochester Police Chief William Ciminelli explained how the situation unfolded. "We determined that these students were forcibly abducted and being held against their will. We developed a tactical plan and after observing certain activity in that location the determination was made, we authorized the SWAT team to do an entry and the Rochester Police department SWAT team did enter that location and in fact did a hostage rescue," he said, according to ABC News.
Ciminelli also noted that "this was a directed event and we have no information or evidence of any kind that this constituted a general threat to the University of Rochester community, nor do we have any information or evidence that there is a threat or safety concern to the University of Rochester community at this point," reported USA Today.
