Five students at a Massachusetts Christian college made their first court appearances on Thursday, accused of luring an Army soldier onto their campus using a dating app and attacking him in a “To Catch a Predator” TikTok trend.

The Assumption University students were arraigned on conspiracy and kidnapping charges in Worcester District Court on Thursday. Automatic not-guilty pleas were entered for Easton Randall, 19; Kevin Carroll, 18; Isabella Trudeau, 18; Joaquin Smith, 18; and 18-year-old Kelsy Brainard, whose Tinder account was used to lure the 22-year-old Army soldier.

They are scheduled to appear again on March 28, according to online court records. A sixth student, a juvenile, has also been charged.

A relative of the victim told Fox News Digital that the 22-year-old deployed to the Middle East soon after the harrowing incident.

Kevin Carroll is arraigned in Worcester District Court in Massachusetts on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Carroll is one of six Assumption University students arrested in connection with ambushing a U.S. soldier as part of a “Catch a Predator” online trend. He faces an additional charge for allegedly slamming the victim’s head in his car door. (David McGlynn for Fox News Digital)

Further investigation revealed that “a small subset of the larger group” – the students now facing criminal charges – allegedly “conspired with each other to lure the victim to the property and solicited assistance ‘to catch a predator’ via group texts.”

“The goal of the Tinder invite was to simulate the TikTok fad of luring a sexual predator to a location and subsequently physically assaulting him or calling police,” according to court documents. 

The accused students were all sitting together when Brainard was sending Tinder messages back and forth with the victim “when the idea of Catch a Predator came to mind,” Randall later told police. 

Easton Randall is arraigned in Worcester District Court in Massachusetts on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Randall is one of six Assumption University students arrested in connection with ambushing a U.S. soldier as part of a “Catch a Predator” online trend. (David McGlynn for Fox News Digital)

“They all made suggestions and agreed what was texted to [the victim] and … the others joined the conspiracy knowing of the unlawful plan.”

Randall told campus police that “Catch a Predator was a big thing on TikTok currently, but that this got out of hand and went bad,” police wrote.

Joaquin Smith is arraigned in Worcester District Court in Massachusetts on Thursday, January 16, 2025. Smith is one of six Assumption University students arrested in connection with ambushing a U.S. soldier as part of a “Catch a Predator” online trend. (David McGlynn for Fox News Digital)

When the victim came to campus, one of the men simply texted the group chat that they “[had] to come down here” because they were “catching a predator,” which provoked a “rabid” response from the students, according to court records.

Assumption University in Worcester, Massachusetts. (Christine Peterson/Worcester Telegram & Gazette via USA Today Network)

Brainard diminished her responsibility, records show, telling campus police that she “didn’t know what was going to happen” when confronted about the falsification. But police wrote that she was seen laughing and smiling on surveillance footage as the male students descended upon her Tinder match. 

Attorneys representing the six students did not return Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.