by Charlie Hall ’27
May 2024
Early in the morning on Thursday, April 18, a man scaled the walker’s gate fence and roamed around the school for a few hours before leaving on his own.
The man was caught on a school camera and VUPD was dispatched to USN. However, before the officer arrived the man had fled the building. He ended up only stealing pants, a raincoat, a heavy jacket, and a backpack full of school supplies.
Just a few days before this incident, on April 16, he broke into a restricted lab area at Vanderbilt. Tony Garcia for WSMV Channel Four reported, “A staff member saw the man smoking a cigarette while watching pornography on a university computer.”
The 33-year-old man was on the run from police until April 24 which resulted in another evading arrest charge. He later attempted to break into the same lab building at Vanderbilt, but this time was caught and arrested. He is being charged with trespassing, theft, vandalism, and evading arrest charges. After the arrest, he was taken to the Downtown Detention Center where he remains as of press time.
He is no stranger to interactions with the police. This marks his 51st felony since 2009 and 143rd overall charge. He has 12 open cases at the moment. Some of his repeated charges include 15 trespassing charges, 14 assaults on an officer, 6 evading arrest charges, 20 thefts, public intoxication and possession of a weapon.
The USN Director of Safety and Security, Aerin Washington, said in a schoolwide email on April 19, “USN administrators also are discussing other short and long-term solutions to prevent these types of incidents from occurring again.” The most visible of these was to weld metal sheets above the walkers’ gate fence.
(PHOTO) Caption: Walkers Gate after temporary metal sheets added to block people scaling over top.
The man was issued a criminal trespass warning from every Vanderbilt building on May 29, 2023, except for Medical treatments. According to the arrest report, he wore latex gloves, walking around and pulling on every door until one opened.
The man who broke in didn’t pick a lock or break a window. He was walking around pulling on doors until one opened. This is why Washington and the USN adminsitration have emphasized students shutting doors behind them and not keeping them open for unknown people.
While this was met with a bit of backlash from students who see this as a school culture shift, there will rarely be a time you enter the school through a door that isn’t 19th Avenue followed by someone you don’t recognize or don’t have a name tag. In the future, keyfob access may be used to get into the building at all times.
In April, USN hosted three security forums to, “address questions and discuss potential changes and enhancements to our security protocols,” Director Amani Reed said in an email. Moving forward, there will also be additional officers on campus from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM in the Alper Courtyard and Library Terrace. VUPD will also do a walkthrough of the building at 5:30 AM before the school day.
The school is currently discussing additional permanent solutions, and students should not be surprised to see changes when coming back in the fall.
