The charges against three Loyola students were reduced from attempted armed robbery to aggravated assault last week.

“The judge understands that it was a prank. That’s why he dropped the bonds so low,” said management freshman Mohamed Diakite, referring to the recent decrease of the three students’ bail bonds from $35,000 to $7,000, then to $4,000.

Diakite, who was arrested for demanding money from pedestrians at gunpoint with a fake gun, said that he didn’t expect the consequences of their actions to be so high. He didn’t even expect the victims to call the police because he was confident that each person understood it was only a joke.

“We stopped as soon as we saw fear in their eyes … it seemed like we left the victims on good terms,” he said.

The night of the arrest, Diakite and his companions John A. White, biology freshman, and Chukwuemeka Anigbo, finance junior, went to eat on Tulane University’s campus. After they left in Anigbo’s car and started to drive around, the idea came up.

“It was my idea first, but then it died down, and (then they said), ‘Do it now’ … It was kind of all of our idea,” Diakite said.

Anigbo carries a cap gun in his car, and the three of them decided to scare a group of girls who were walking around the Uptown area.

They asked them for directions to Loyola, then asked if they had any money, and Diakite pulled the gun out. Diakite said he never pointed the cap gun at them and never shouted.

“I was scared the whole time. I can’t even act like a bad guy … I was smiling the whole time.

“They started freaking out, and then I said, ‘I’m just playing.'” So he showed them the gun wasn’t a real firearm.

At that point, the victims walked away, and the trio, worried that the girls might call the police, caught up with the girls around the corner and showed them again that the gun wasn’t real.

Diakite said that the girls were angry but “they calmed down … they told us not to do it … and we talked for five minutes after that.”

After they drove away, the trio decided to try it again, this time on a group of two female students and one male student, then later again on a male student by himself. According to Diakite, they made sure they didn’t scare anyone who might pull a gun on them in defense and that they only scared college students, not adults or high school students. Diakite attests that each time they did it, they said it was a joke.

The last victim took out his wallet, and the trio let him know that they didn’t want his money.

“He said, ‘Oh, shoot, you got me,’ and he laughed,” Diakite said.

Diakite, White and Anigbo then drove back to Loyola and soon left again for TJ Quills on Maple Street. It was on their way to Quills that the police pulled them over.

Diakite thought that they were being wrongly suspected of something and expected that they would be asked for their licenses and registration. Instead, three police officers came to their window with guns drawn, and the trio were put on the ground. According to Diakite, there were sixteen police cars surrounding them.

All three groups of victims had called the police. The five initial counts of armed robbery (which have since been reduced) are based on the five people who filed reports against them that night.

“Maybe the victims didn’t know the consequences it would have,” Diakite said. “They probably felt like if they tell the police it’s a prank, that we’d go in (jail) for a night and be punished for that and come out.

“But then it was a high charge and a serious offense, and I felt like they might not have known (we would be facing criminal charges). Otherwise they might not have called the police.”

‘I THOUGHT IT WAS FUNNY’

Last summer in Virginia, Diakite said he was the victim of a similar prank.

While walking back to his apartment, a few strangers pulled up beside Diakite and stopped him with a real gun. They asked him if he had any money, then told him they were joking.

“I didn’t call the police or (anything) like that … I thought it was funny.”

Earlier this semester, Diakite said he and Anigbo pulled the same prank on a friend of his while they were walking toward each other late at night on campus. According to Diakite, because it was dark, his friend didn’t recognize him at first, and Diakite scared him for a moment. This was the only time he had tried playing a prank like this before, Diakite said.

Diakite denied that the Loyola trio committed similar, earlier pranks both The Maroon and the Times-Picayune had reported on.

‘YOU DON’T KNOW HOW BAD YOU DON’T WANT TO GO’

Of his first night in Central Lockup, Diakite said, “I almost saw two guys die the first day. An old guy had a seizure, and another guy was about to get beat up … he was being choked.”

Diakite spent 25 days in jail after his arrest. He said the scariest time was the first day, but the remaining weeks were still hardly bearable.

“Everyone says they don’t want to go to jail – you don’t know how bad you don’t want to go. People say that nine hours in there is the worst time of their lives, so imagine that 25 times.”

Diakite said that when he was talking to the inmates, they were telling him how stupid he was.

“They said, ‘If you (were) from here, you’d know not to do that.’

“I understand this is the wrong city to do that. It was really dumb, and I really feel like I embarrassed the school.”

Diakite said his mother couldn’t eat or sleep for three days after she heard. His parents are being supportive, though.

“They feel like I’ve been through enough. They’re on my side,” he said.

Katie Urbaszewski can be reached at [email protected].