The Masque of the Morning Breath

While he nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, as if some masked man gently rapping, rapping at his dorm room door. “’Tis that visitor,” he muttered, “tapping at my dorm room door. Only him ⁠— again ⁠— and nothing more.”

A University of Arizona Police Department officer responded to a call from a resident assistant in Arizona-Sonora Residence Hall on Nov. 4. When the officer arrived at around 4:45 p.m., the RA told him that twice he had been disturbed by someone forcefully knocking on his door in the early morning hours of Nov. 1 and Nov. 3.

On both occasions the unknown knocker had been wearing a mask and came to complain about a recent incident in the hall, the RA said.

He did not know who the mysterious masked man was on account of, well, the mask. But he had his suspects, namely two UA students who had previously been involved in a drug-related incident that he had reported. 

RELATED: Police Beat 11/13/2019: Red blood, yellow paint and underage blues

The most recent nighttime knocking had occurred on Nov. 3, at around 3:30 a.m. The RA told the officer that he opened his door and spoke with the masked man, who asked about the RA’s involvement in the narcotics incident. The RA told the man that this was neither the time nor the place to have this discussion, but that they could meet at a more appropriate time. 

He also asked the man to remove his mask, but the man did not comply. So the RA told him, “I can’t have you do this again.”

The RA told the officer that he did not feel unsafe during the incident, just that it was not appropriate.

The officer, along with the dorm’s community director, reviewed security camera footage from that night and saw a masked man traveling up and down the halls before returning to one room.

The RA said he did not want to press the matter further, just that he wanted the incident documented.

Urine the wrong room

There are party fouls, and then there’s just plain fouling up a room.

A UAPD officer arrived at Cochise Residence Hall at around 3 p.m. on Nov. 9 to speak with two students who had received a rather unwelcome visitor early that morning.

The first student told the officer that around 5 a.m. another resident had entered their unlocked room uninvited. The resident proceeded to walk directly to the corner of the room and pee on the carpet.

The student suspected the resident was intoxicated and did not realize where he was, based on the way the resident put his arm on the wall to brace himself and keep from swaying as he peed. 

Once he realized what the resident was doing, the student immediately told him, “You need to stop.” According to the student, the resident said, “Oh, okay dude.” The student led him out of the room and the resident left.

He later told a resident assistant about what had happened, who had Facilities Maintenance clean the carpet in the room. None of the student’s personal belongings had been peed on. 

RELATED: Police Beat 11/7/2019: Invasion of the Banner Snatchers

The roommates said that the door to the room had been unlocked when the resident came in and that they  frequently keep the door unlocked, but this was the first time it had caused an issue.

They also said that they did not want the resident in their room for any reason, and they had contacted the police to keep it from happening again. The officer reminded the roommates of the importance of locking their door.

The first student knew the resident because he had seen him around the hall. He gave the officer the resident’s name and room number. 

The officer spoke with the resident near his room and informed him why she was there and told him his rights. The resident agreed to answer questions depending on what they were.

The officer asked if he had been in the other students’ room, and he replied that he was not sure. She then asked if he had been intoxicated that morning. The student declined to answer. The officer did not notice any signs of intoxication during her conversation with the resident.

She then told the resident that her does not have permission to enter that room and that if he does so again he will be cited for trespassing. The resident asked to apologize to the other students, who accepted the apology.

The officer completed a code of conduct report, as well as a report to inform Housing and Residential Life of the incident.

Hate in the hallway

Sometimes even a missing flag can still be a red flag if the flag represents a group of people who have been subject to mistreatment.

A UAPD officer met with a student and the community director of Coronado Residence Hall on Nov. 7 at around 7 p.m. The student wanted to speak with law enforcement after what she believed was a troubling theft of one of her belongings.

The student told the officer that earlier that evening, she had returned to her dorm room to find that her Jewish National Fund pendant was missing from the outside of her door.

She described the pendant as being triangular, about 2 feet long, dark blue in color and made of felt. She had taped the pendant to her door at about eye level.

The student said she had been gone from her room for about seven hours and that she absolutely would have noticed if the pendant was missing when she left.

She estimated that it was worth about $10, but the monetary value of the missing pendant was not what worried her, so much as the feeling that she was being targeted because of her religion.

RELATED: Police Beat 10/23/2019: This dorm ain’t big enough for the two of us

She told the officer that she suspected someone had already messed with the pendant about two weeks ago, after she found it lying on the hallway floor. She did not know who might be targeting her, though she thought that the security cameras in the hall might have caught who it was.

The community director told the officer that she had already reviewed the footage from the hours when the student was gone that day and did not notice anything suspicious. The officer checked the tapes himself and also did not see any suspicious activity.

According to the report, the tapes showed the student leaving and returning to the room at the time she had given the officer. The report did not specify if the pendant was on the door when the student left her room that morning.

The student told the officer that she felt unsafe. The community director and other staff members worked to find a different place for the student to sleep that night. They also arranged for permanent relocation away from the room if the student wanted it.

The officer filled out a Victim Rights Form for the student, as well as a Hate Crimes Form.

Follow Vanessa Ontiveros on Twitter