A non-student guest was arrested after he allegedly attempted to rob an AU student in Leonard Hall on Saturday afternoon, according to Sgt. Dale Booth, an officer in Public Safety.
Jared R. Islas, who is not directly associated with the university, allegedly attempted to rob a male freshman in one of the hall's elevators. Islas allegedly demanded the student's wallet and threatened to use force if he did not give it to Islas. No weapons were used in the attempted robbery, and no one was injured, according to Booth.
Islas was in Leonard because he was the guest of one of the hall's residents, Booth said.
Public Safety got a call about the incident around 2:30 p.m. Officers went to Leonard to investigate the area and search for the suspect but were not able to find anyone matching the description they had received from witnesses. They put out an alert to other Public Safety officers and residence hall desk receptionists, instructing them to be on the lookout for the suspect and included their description of him, according to Booth.
Soon after the alert went out, a desk receptionist reported seeing someone fitting Islas' description. Public Safety officers caught Islas in the area between the main entrance to Hughes Hall and the street entrance to the Kogod School of Business building, arrested him and called in officers from the Metropolitan Police Department.
The victim positively identified Islas as the person who attempted to rob him. MPD officers then transported Islas to the department's Fourth District Station at 6001 Georgia Ave. N.W., Booth said.
It was not immediately clear why they transported Islas to the Fourth District station rather than the one in the Second District - the police district AU's campus is located in.
Jenny Sparks, a sophomore in the School of International Service, said she saw the MPD cars on-campus on the day of the incident but did not see Islas taken into custody.
"There were a couple of police cars in front of Kogod," she said. "We weren't quite sure what was going on."
Signs put up on Saturday instructed Leonard Hall residents not to open their room doors to strangers. The signs did not explain why residents needed to be wary of strangers and did not mention the attempted robbery.
Islas was barred from coming onto the campus after the incident, Booth said.
The Eagle spoke with a person at the U.S. District Attorney's Office for D.C., but was not able to officially confirm Islas' current judicial status as of press time Wednesday evening.
