Yale University Singing Group Attacked, Injured in San Francisco

By Mary Mitchell

Published on January 11, 2007

The 16-member a cappella singing group was on their West Coast tour and attending a New Year's party in their honor at a private residence. Shortly after midnight, some of the other partygoers started taunting the singers with anti-gay slurs. Reno Rapagnani, a retired San Francisco police officer whose home was the site of the party, shut the party down. As the singers were walking to a nearby residence where they were staying for the night, a group of men jumped out of a vehicle, surrounded the singers, and started harassing them and throwing beer bottles at them. An additional vehicle with more assailants arrived, and the beating began. Singer Sharyar Aziz Jr., 18, suffered a broken jaw at the hands of the assailants, and two other singers received injuries requiring medical treatment, one for a concussion.

Police arrived at the scene at about 12:45 a.m., finding about 20 people fighting. They interviewed four of the alleged assailants at the scene and then let them leave, an aspect of the police's handling of the case that some people find troubling. Some suspects were taken into custody but then released shortly; no arrests were made. The San Francisco Police Department states that an investigation of the incident continues.

Comment on this article →