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MU issues 8th crime alert after 2 suspects force entry into home

Caroline Briggs

Miami University was informed April 23 of an off-campus incident that occurred early Sunday morning to a Miami sophomore - increasing this year's total to eight campus crime alerts.

According to the notice e-mailed to students, faculty and staff, at about 1:10 a.m. Sunday, April 22, two college-aged white males forced entry into an apartment at Hawks Landing - formerly University Commons - on Brown Road after sophomore Bill Calpin answered the door.

According to police reports, after the two males entered the apartment, they choked Calpin, holding him against a wall, and demanded to speak with another roommate - who not in the apartment at the time - about money.

Calpin said that he looked through the peephole in his door and saw one "nice looking" male, and opened the door just a few inches before it was quickly forced open.

A large, masked subject then allegedly grabbed Calpin from behind with both arms around Calpin's neck.

Caplin said the unmasked subject that he saw when opening the door then began yelling and also choking Calpin. The smaller unmasked assaulter was asking for money the roommate owed him, according to Calpin.

The two men then allegedly threw the victim into the other roommate's room to make sure that he wasn't there. Calpin said that throughout the incident, he was being threatened and choked.

"They were brutalizing me," Calpin said. "Of all the things that I would have guessed would happen to me that night, this was not one of them."

Calpin says he assumes the males had been watching the residence before knocking, because 40 minutes prior to the incident, there had been five other males in the apartment with him. He said that they parked their small sedan by backing in, ensuring a quick get-away. He said he noticed the car's headlights shine into the apartment about 20 minutes before the knock at the door.

Though searching for his roommate's money, Calpin said the men were not intent on burglarizing the apartment.

Calpin intends to put out a $300 reward for information leading to the arrests of the individuals.

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"Whenever there is a knock on the door now, my guard goes up," Calpin said. "I shouldn't have to feel like that in sweet, little Oxford, Ohio. They treated me like there weren't going to be consequences for their actions."

Nothing was reportedly missing from the apartment.

Calpin described the assaulting males as white, average build, wearing jeans and possibly Abercrombie shirts. One of the males was wearing a black mask. The other was clean-shaven, tanned face, short, with styled, dirty blonde hair and "buck teeth."

Oxford Police Department (OPD) is investigating the incident. They said that if found, the two unknown males will be charged with burglary, according to police.

OPD sergeant Jim Squance remains hopeful of possible leads appearing in the next few days because the two assaulters are apparently known to the roommate they were looking for.

"Our investigators are taking it seriously," Squance said. "Further interviews will paint a better picture of what happened that night. We will see if this crime alert stirs up any new information. It looks like they knew the roommate and that he was targeted for some reason."

Squance explained that OPD would be speaking with other residents in the same apartment building to see if anyone witnessed either suspect or the vehicle in which they left.

Sophomore Lauren Roberts lives next to the apartment that the incident occurred at Hawks Landing; however, she does not feel personally threatened by its proximity.

"It was pretty shocking and scary to find out (about the assault)," Roberts said. "But, overall, this is a safe complex and I doubt that it will happen again."