Abducted College Students Rescued by SWAT: Cops

Two college students have an upstate New York police force and SWAT team to thank after they were rescued Sunday night from their alleged kidnappers. Nicholas Kollias and Ani Okeke Ewo, both seniors at the University of Rochester, were forcibly abducted from a street near the campus early Saturday morning, the AP reports, and they were reported missing Saturday evening under "suspicious circumstances," the Democrat & Chronicle reports. NBC News reports police learned during their investigations that the two 21-year-olds originally from Illinois were being held at a residence on Harvest Street, which the D&C notes is about 4 miles from the college. Local police and SWAT members stormed the house at around 9:20pm Sunday and pulled out Kollias and Okeke Ewo, WHEC reports. Rochester Police Chief Michael Ciminelli says four suspects are in custody.

Both students were taken to a hospital—one of the men had been shot in the leg before the police rescued them—but their injuries aren't life-threatening, per the D&C. ABC7 notes that two students with the same names are on the school's Yellowjackets football team, though a scan of the team's website only shows an Ani Okeke Ewo. And while Ciminelli hasn't elaborated, he stresses the two students had been specifically targeted and that police don't "have any information or evidence that there is a threat or safety concern to the University of Rochester community at this point." UR President Joel Seligman tells NBC News that local authorities felt a sense of "collective relief" after the students were rescued, noting, "This could have turned out in a very different way." The motive remains unclear. (More Rochester, NY stories.)