Without a Motive?

The players "said they were going to beat up the next male they saw," Ippolito said, reading from a police report. "The victim was just in the wrong place."



He said Yerkin Abdrakhmanov, 21, suffered a broken nose and eye socket, and other injuries, and was treated in Rhode Island Hospital.


"This is a serious assault -- without a motive," Ippolito said in setting bail.

From the Providence Journal college hoops blog.

What an embarrassing day to be a graduate, fan, student, administrator, coach, employee, or anyone else with an affiliation to Providence College. 

Initially, I planned to withhold comment when this story broke, but after reading this excerpt from the police report and hearing Father Sicard's comments of a "serious and random assault" that was "unprovoked" filled me with a sense of anger, embarrassment, and curiosity into what could possibly go through the mind of any human being who would think of something so grotesque, nevermind executing on such a hideous plan. 

What goes through the head of someone who thinks of doing something like this?

What goes through the head of someone who agrees to go through with it when another suggests it?

What goes through the head of someone when they approach a random and completely unsuspecting victim?

What goes through the head of someone who beats him so badly that they break his nose and eye socket and leave him bleeding in the street?

What goes through your head when you are hanging around on a street corner as if nothing has happened afterwards?

What's going through my head right now?  It makes my stomach turn to know I clapped for either of these individuals (albeit, it couldn't have been more than once or twice this season considering their on court impact).  I wonder how Yerkin is doing.  How this incident shapes his and his family's perspective on Providence College and their decision to send him to a school that helped shape me into the person I am today. 

My hope is the Providence College community emerges and proves to him why the college is a special place.

I wonder what so many of the positive role models that played basketball at Providence think when they see the program they helped build getting publicity for something like this. 

I wonder if there are any more details or if a better explanation will come out because a story seemingly so senseless and inhumane has to have more to it, doesn't it?