Four Cazenovia College students were arrested recently by Cazenovia police for allegedly stealing from and assaulting a village resident in what police suspect was a supposed payback for being “ripped off” during a drug deal.

The charges stem from two separate incidents involving the same victim and suspects, which occurred about one week apart.

According to police reports, the victim, a local man, reported that approximately $150 had been stolen from inside his car during the last week of January. The suspects in the case then allegedly sent a picture to his cell phone showing two of them holding the money they stole from him and taunting him about the theft.

About one week later, on Feb. 5, the victim was at the Red Apple gas station on Albany Street when multiple men allegedly assaulted him and stole items from the trunk of his car before he was able to enter his car and speed away from the scene.

On the same day, Feb. 5, police were notified by witnesses that “a group of college kids were going around the village and ‘punking down’ other college students and also high school students,” according to the police report.

On Feb. 6, as a result of their investigation, Cazenovia police arrested Stephen Zao, 19, of Sullivan Street (Cazenovia College), Kadeem J. Barro, 20, of New York City (Cazenovia College) and Garfield A. McKenzie, of New York City (Cazenovia College) and charged all three with conspiracy in the sixth degree and petit larceny, both misdemeanors; William R. Thompson, 18, of Sullivan Street (Cazenovia College), was also arrested Feb. 6 and charged with petit larceny.

Additional charges may be filed against all four suspects, said Cazenovia Police Chief Michael Hayes.

All four were issued appearance tickets for Cazenovia Village Court.

None of the four have been arrested previously by Cazenovia police, as far as has been determined, Hayes said.

“I’m very proud of the work my guys did on this; it was a lot of good investigative work,” Hayes said. “I hope this sends a message that we do not tolerate this kind of behavior in Cazenovia, whether it’s from college students or local citizens, or occurs to college students or local citizens. It’s just not going to be tolerated.”

Cazenovia College officials are aware of the incidents and arrests of their four college students, are cooperating with police and “will consider disciplinary action pending court action and/or additional information received,” said Wayne Westervelt, Cazenovia College vice president for marketing and communications.

Meanwhile two of the four students arrested have been suspended from athletic teams, said Cazenovia College President Mark Tierno.

McKenzie and Thompson are both members of the Cazenovia College basketball team.

“It is concerning that any of our students might be breaking the law regardless of their participation in athletics,” Tierno said.

Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia Republican. He can be reached at [email protected].