Inappropriate Grabbing Incident: Bates College Issues Alert, But No Suspect Found.

A text notification was sent to Bates College students at 4:02 a.m. stating that an individual had been identified for “inappropriately grabbing” a student after a Campus Safety investigation. This update followed a campus-wide text blast at 1:34 a.m. warning of a sexual assault reported near Bonney Science. Campus Safety and the Lewiston Police Department joined forces to conduct a search in that area, but despite their efforts, they were unable to identify a suspect.

The incident involved inappropriate grabbing of a student by an individual, although it was not specified whether the individual was part of the Bates community. The college stated that this type of behavior falls under sexual assault according to the Clery Act and necessitated a timely alert to the community. The college assured that there was no lingering threat to the Bates campus from this incident, and it was clarified that the incident was not related to prior cases where students were alerted to a man detained for indecent exposure on campus.