A group of summer school students was accosted and threatened outside Thayer Hall early Sunday morning by a pair of self-styled skinheads, according to police records.

Cameron F. MacDonald and Kevin M. Silvers, both about 20 years old, were arrested for unarmed assault and intent to rob in connection with the incident, police said.

David A. Friedberg, a summer school student from Los Angeles, called the police after one of them took his pack of cigarettes, demanded money and repeatedly threatened him, he wrote in a statement to the police.

Friedberg wrote that the men approached him as he was lying on the grass near Thayer with a group of friends just before 1 a.m.

One of the men threatened to step on his head, and placed his foot in a menacing position, Friedberg wrote.

According to Friedberg's report, the man removed his hat and "proclaimed he was a skinhead."

The man demanded that Friedberg hand over his cigarettes, and when the summer student complied, demanded that he surrender the cash in his pocket.

"He...began demanding money, saying how he heard money in my pocket and I was a 'rich piece of shit' and a 'rich bitch,'" according to the report.

According to Friedberg, the man continued to make offensive comments and said, "I am non-politically correct and I fucking love it, man!"

The man continued to attempt to pick a fight with Friedberg, according to the report. At one point, the man threatened to kill Friedberg if he moved, according to the report.

Friedberg did manage at one point to slip away from the group and call the police, who arrived on the scene promptly, observers said.

Motivation

Despite the men's self-characterization as skinheads, the incident does not seem to have been racially motivated.

Friedberg and all eyewitnesses interviewed are white. And Jedediah S. Purdy '97, Friedberg's proctor, said he was "fairly sure" that the group was almost entirely white.

Friedberg speculated that behavior-altering substances played a larger role.