UPDATE: 11:51 a.m.

Iowa City Police released a statement, which was later sent out by the University of Iowa as a Hawk Alert:

On Monday, May 2, 2016, at 11:21 p.m., an individual came to the front desk of the Iowa City Police Department (ICPD) to report that he had been assaulted. According to the victim, on Saturday, April 30 between the hours of 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., the victim was in the alleyway of the 200 block of Iowa Avenue when he was approached by an individual and subsequently struck multiple times. According to the victim, he was then struck several more times by multiple subjects while being called racial slurs. The suspects were initially described as being three white males, average height, and approximately nineteen to twenty-two years of age. The ICPD is investigating the matter for the purposes of pursuing criminal charges and have developed suspect information.

This matter remains under active investigation by the ICPD’s Investigative unit. In addition, based on information presented by the victim, this case is being investigated as a hate crime. The ICPD is also requesting that if anyone has any information related to this incident, or may have been a witness, to call 319-356-5276.

ORIGINAL POST: Amid a flurry of tweets and a news report out of Chicago, University of Iowa officials responded to #ExplainIowa, as it trended on Twitter late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, as students called for the UI administration to explain why the campus was not notified after one UI student was subjected to what he calls a racially-motivated crime.

According to a report by ABC, 19-year-old UI student Marcus Owens, a freshman, was assaulted over the weekend. The assault, the report says, required Owens to have “nearly a dozen stitches to his lip.” It also reports he had damage to an eye socket.

His family is calling the crime, which ABC reports occurred Saturday night after Owns left an “off-campus pub,” racially motivated, saying three white men yelled the n-word before punching him. His family said to ABC that he believes one of the offenders is “a student he has seen on campus.”

The University of Iowa released a statement via its Twitter account early Wednesday morning at close to 1 a.m.

Students participating in #ExplainIowa are questioning specifically why no alert was sent out to notify students. Alerts are standard after crimes, like robberies, assaults, or sexual assaults, are committed on or near campus.

According to the University of Iowa website, the UI Department of Public safety initiates the notifications, unless they are winter weather related. The Office of the President also has the ability to initiate Hawk Alerts. As of early Wednesday morning, no report has been issued by the UI.

Check out a storify of the Twitter activity here.