Mia Lara, 21, confronted a man she believed had assaulted her friend at a University of Chicago fraternity party, video shows.
Lara, who is not a UChicago student, said that she and four friends arrived at the Alpha Epsilon Pi house in Hyde Park early Sunday after seeing the party promoted online. Two men in their group were denied entry, leaving Lara and two female friends to enter alone, she said.
Inside, Lara spotted her friend kissing a man before the pair disappeared. She later tracked them to a locked bathroom where the man’s friends were cheering from the other side of the door, she told the outlet. Lara said she forced her way in and found her friend slumped on the floor, partially clothed, saying “Get me out of here” and “I don’t want to be here.”
After extracting her friend, the pair sat on the sidewalk outside when Lara noticed a group of men pointing and laughing at the victim, she said. “I point at the guy, and I’m like, ‘You’re the one that was in the bathroom with her.’ I was like, ‘What did you do to her?'” she said.
The men claimed Lara had identified the wrong person, but she insisted it was the same man she had seen inside the bathroom, she told the outlet. They then fled after misdirecting her attention, claiming the true assailant was trying to reenter the frat house, she alleged.
Lara pursued them as one man pulled out his phone and began recording her. Video captured her screaming at the man she believed was her friend’s attacker: “He f–king assaulted my friend in the bathroom of the f–king frat party! You can record all the s–t you want!”
“I walk in there, you f–king took her clothes off!” Lara yelled in the video.
“She wanted to,” the man responded, before Lara appeared to try to slap him and continued chasing him.
A police report obtained by the Chicago Tribune stated that the alleged victim had consumed three cans of an unknown alcoholic beverage and “began feeling unwell” and “blacking out.” The victim told police she was “not fully conscious” while in the bathroom.
UChicago announced Tuesday that it had identified a “person of interest” in the case but declined to name him, citing the ongoing police investigation and lack of filed charges. The man does not attend the university but has been banned from campus, the school said. The university noted it maintains no official affiliation with Greek life organizations, though such groups must still follow campus rules.
Jonathan Pierce, a spokesman for the national AEPi organization, said in an email that the alleged assailant was not a fraternity member. “There is no evidence at all that any AEPi members participated in this assault or were aware of it while it was transpiring,” Pierce said. Regarding the men allegedly cheering outside the bathroom door, he added, “We do not believe that any of those people were AEPi members.”
Pierce and police declined to comment on the video. The university did not respond to requests for comment on the footage.
Lara’s account matched her earlier interview this week. The Post could not confirm whether the man in the video was the alleged assailant or connected to the incident.