Lawyer: Too early to call stabbing a hate crime

Associated Press

COLLEGE PARK, MD.

Authorities appealed for patience Monday from two college communities reacting in shock, fear and anger after a white University of Maryland student was arrested in what police called the unprovoked stabbing of a black Bowie State University student.

Police and the FBI are investigating the killing of Richard Collins III as a possible hate crime, because the suspect, Sean Urbanski, became a member of a racist Facebook group several months ago.

Collins’ classmates at Bowie State organized a vigil in his memory Monday night.

“I know people are hurting,” Police Chief Hank Stawinski said. “I know that people are drawing conclusions. I know that social media moves in its own way.

“But I’m asking as the Chief of Police in Prince George’s County ... that we take pause and allow all these investigators to do their work. They will know to a certainty what lies behind this, but we’re not there yet.”

Urbanski, who was denied bond Monday at his first court hearing, was intoxicated during the slaying early Saturday, and police are awaiting results of drug tests.

Defense attorney William C. Brennan argued that since the 22-year-old had no criminal record, he should be allowed to live at home with a GPS monitor and receive alcohol abuse treatment while his case goes forward. The judge declined, for now.

Collins, 23, who was visiting friends at the College Park campus, had just been commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, and would have graduated today from Bowie State.

Lt. Col. Joel Thomas, who runs the ROTC unit at Bowie State, described Collins as intelligent, athletic, personable and with all the makings of an outstanding military leader.

The killing roiled both campuses, which are nearby each other in suburban Washington. Bowie State, a historically black school, is having its commencement today in the same stadium on the College Park campus where Maryland had its ceremony Sunday.