A Morehouse College student seen in a now-viral video in November allegedly assaulting a female Clark Atlanta University student will only be allowed to attend classes online when the spring semester begins next week.
Matthew Gonzales Forestine, 21, will have his first formal court appearance on Jan. 15, when he will be expected to enter a plea. The senior computer science major from Brooklyn, New York, is charged with one count each of aggravated assault and terroristic threats and acts.
In a TikTok post that has amassed nearly 3 million views, CAU junior Kayla Bryant identified herself as the victim and shared footage of the assault on Nov. 20.
The video recorded by bystanders begins with Gonzales Forestine intervening in an interaction between Bryant and his girlfriend by wrapping his arm around her neck from behind while asking “I should kill you, right?”
Gonzales Forestine appears to lift her off the ground and keep Bryant in a chokehold for about 10 seconds before two men witnessing the incident pull him off of her.
Bryant then walks a few yards away around the corner, but Gonzales Forestine and his girlfriend follow. He continues to shout at Bryant telling her to call the police and to call her man while one of the men who just pulled him off her stands in between the two.
“I couldn’t breathe,” Bryant, a 23-year-old student, said on TikTok. “I was kicking off the walls and stuff to try to gain some sort of balance, and he’s telling me he’s gonna kill me.”
According to the Atlanta Police Department’s preliminary statement, Bryant told officers who responded to the scene that Gonzales Forestine stepped on her shoe and walked away. When she asked for an apology, his girlfriend got angry and pushed her. Gonzales Forestine then joined in the assault before witnesses intervened.
The subsequent online uproar led the presidents of Morehouse and Clark Atlanta to release statements condemning violence against women and pledging full cooperation with the law enforcement investigation.
Morehouse is also conducting its own investigation and student conduct review. Any action taken as a result of the investigation will have to be approved by the Honor and Conduct Review Board and the College Judiciary Committee before it is confirmed.
Gonzales Forestine was arrested a few days after the incident and spent nearly four weeks in Fulton County Jail before he was released on a $30,000 bond on Dec. 19.
As a condition of the bond order, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said Gonzales Forestine cannot have any direct or indirect contact with the victim and is banned from the Legacy at Centennial apartments, where the incident took place.
He is also not allowed on the Morehouse campus for any reason.
A felony aggravated assault conviction carries a sentence ranging from 1 to 20 years. The indictment also specifies that Gonzales Forestine is charged with felony terroristic threats and acts for stating “I should kill you, right?” during the assault. If convicted on that charge, he would face one to five years in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.
