The Emory Wheel meets with Emory Police Department (EPD) Records Manager Ed Shoemaker (87G, 90G) and EPD Communications Director Morieka Johnson and uses EPD’s public Crime Log to inform the Emory University community about recent crime on and around Emory’s campuses. To report a crime, contact EPD at 404-727-6111 or police@emory.edu.
Criminal trespass, property damage at Emory West
EPD received a complaint at 2:30 a.m. on April 5 about a burglar alarm from the Emory Briarcliff campus Building A. The entrance door on the first floor had been broken open when EPD officers entered the building, where they found two 17-year-olds in the first-floor lobby. Officers detained them, confirming that they were unarmed.
According to Shoemaker, the two trespassers broke into the building because they had seen the TV show “Stranger Things,” which used the building as a filming location, and wanted to see the place in-person. Shoemaker noted that there was also a third person with them who ran away, but the two teenagers in custody convinced the third trespasser to return.
EPD gave the three trespassers a written criminal trespass warning, which states that they should not return to the property for any purpose other than to seek emergency medical care at Emory University Hospital. Shoemaker said that after receiving a criminal trespass warning, returning to the property could result in arrest.
Simple battery at Emory University Hospital
Right after midnight on April 2, a hospital public safety officer flagged down an EPD officer in front of the Hospital. The valet attendant reported that a customer tried to snatch her key as he attempted to hand it back to her when she was waiting for her vehicle, and the key dropped on the ground.
The attendant decided to take a photo of the tags on her keys to make a report to his manager. However, when he took out his phone, the customer shoved him. After he stepped away from the vehicle, the customer began to follow him around the vehicle and shoved him again.
The incident was categorized as “simple battery,” which Shoemaker defined as “unwanted touching of an individual” that, unlike “battery,” doesn’t “cause a visible injury.”
The customer does not speak English, a factor that “complicates” things from EPD’s perspective, according to Shoemaker. There was also a nurse at the scene who had been dealing with the customer’s husband, a patient in the emergency room.
After separating himself from the customer, Emory University Healthcare conducted a negotiation between the nurse, the customer, the customer’s husband and the valet attendant. EPD did not participate directly in the conversation, but the attendant did not want to press criminal charges against the customer, according to Shoemaker.
Reckless driving on Eagle Row
EPD received a call on April 3 at about 9:30 p.m. from a student who reported that an oncoming Emory shuttle failed to stop at the stop sign while she was trying to cross Eagle Row at the crosswalk after leaving Kaldi’s Coffee at the Depot.
She told EPD that she jumped out of the way to avoid being hit, according to Shoemaker.
Though the student was not injured, she said she saw the person driving the bus and was upset since the incident left her feeling unsafe, Shoemaker said. She continued walking up Means Drive to Woodruff Circle and saw the same driver standing outside one of the shuttles, so she approached him and inquired if he had seen her.
“He said, ‘I just saw you,’” Shoemaker said. “And she said, ‘Well, you almost hit me.’”
The student asked for the driver’s name and took a picture of the tag on the shuttle that he had been driving. EPD contacted the night supervisor of the shuttle service, who confirmed that the name aligned with an employee on their record.
The night supervisor indicated that they would pursue the issue with their management and the driver.
Bike lock incident
EPD received a call on the evening of April 6 from the Student Activity and Academic Center at the Clairmont Campus. The caller reported that somebody had locked another bike to their bike, which was already locked to the bike rack.
The call had come from the student who owned the bike that was initially attached to the rack.
Officers cut the lock that attached the two bikes, and the owner took back his own bike. EPD took the other bike into their possession and are currently looking to return it to its owner.
“It’s not always life and death, but it’s never dull,” Shoemaker said
