Biology student Jason Vassell was in his ground-floor University of Massachusetts dorm room hanging out with friends when two drunken strangers tapped on his window, asking for directions. An argument began.
One of the white men hurled racial slurs at Vassell, who is black, before both took off.
Vassell then put a black cloth over his face, armed himself with a clothes iron and a folding knife and left his room. Surveillance cameras later show Vassell stabbing both men in the dorm lobby.
Hundreds of professors, students and community members continue to rally behind the former student, believing he was the victim of a hate crime and that the two men who set off the chain of events were not held fully accountable.
But in a motion to dismiss the charges, Hoose argues prosecutors ultimately made the decision to charge Vassell because he is black and the two men he stabbed are white.
