College students free after being held hostage for two days

Two missing University of Rochester seniors were rescued by authorities on Sunday night after being held hostage at an upstate New York home.

Ani Okeke Ewo and Nicholas Kollias vanished at 2 a.m. Saturday after being abducted and unwillingly held captive four miles from the campus, Rochester police stated in the New York Daily News. The police added that a SWAT team was needed to secure the hostages’ release, which came around 9:20 p.m. Sunday, a related Chicago Tribune article reported.

When the SWAT team entered the home at 22 Harvest St. in northeast Rochester, officers found that one of the kidnapped students had a gunshot wound to the leg, though the injuries are not life-threatening, the Daily News added.

Four people have been taken into custody for the incident, the Tribune stated, adding that the investigation is ongoing.

Rochester Police Chief Michael Ciminelli said the two students were targeted, though it remains unclear why they were kidnapped.

“I do want to point out this was a directed event” Ciminelli said at a news briefing referenced by the Daily News. “We have no information or evidence of any kind that this constituted a general threat to the University of Rochester community.”