FIRST OFF . . . : Stage

Nine youths--described by police as descending on their victims at a Sept. 10 suburban New York rap concert “in a frenzy, like sharks”--have been charged in a series of robberies and attacks during the show at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island that left one person dead and 12 injured. Police arrested the suspects, ages 16 to 22, at their homes in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant section over the weekend, police said. Police were led to the suspects after they bragged about the attacks, said Detective Sgt. John Nolan, head of the Nassau County homicide division. If the victim resisted the suspects’ robbery attempts, Nolan said, the youths would “surround him, envelop him, beat, stab and slash him with razor blades before he knew what had happened.” Four of those arrested were charged with murder and jailed without bail. Other charges included larceny, riot and conspiracy.