The Emory Wheel regularly meets with Emory Police Department (EPD) Records Manager Ed Shoemaker (87G, 90G) and Director of Campus Safety Communications Morieka Johnson (94C) 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.
Simple battery and stalking at Emory University Hospital
A woman who works in Food and Nutrition Services at Emory University Hospital (EUH) came to EPD on Oct. 21 to report a stalking and battery incident that had been occurring for the past few months.
The woman started her job at EUH in July. The other party involved in the incident was a male supervisor in the same department. The suspect is not her direct supervisor.
According to the woman, the suspect had approached her and repeatedly asked her for a hug, to which she “didn’t really know quite how to say no,” Shoemaker said. The woman responded by giving “side hugs” hoping the suspect would lose interest, but he did not. Over time, the woman became increasingly uncomfortable with the situation.
On the day the woman reported the incident, the suspect requested a hug, which she refused. The woman tried to walk away, but the suspect pulled her by the hood of her jacket toward him to hug her.
Once separated, the woman told a different supervisor and then contacted EPD.
EPD talked with the suspect, who said he did not realize the woman was uncomfortable with his actions. EPD is currently deliberating whether it will handle the case as a criminal matter in addition to any administrative action EUH may take.
Stalking
A female student reported to EPD around 2:30 p.m. on Oct. 28 about an ongoing stalking situation.
The female student lives on campus and reported that a male individual constantly followed her around campus. The student knows that the suspect is a former Emory student but is unsure of whether he has graduated.
The student met the suspect about a year and a half ago in December 2022, at Woodruff Library, after he started a conversation with her while she was studying. The following semester, the two encountered one another at an InterVarsity Christian Fellowship conference. The suspect got the student’s phone number because they were both in the same small group.
Afterward, the man started sending her messages. The female student originally responded to the messages to be polite but ultimately decided to stop communicating back when the messages started making her feel uncomfortable.
The suspect continued to try contacting the student over the course of a year in a manner that the student said was “obsessive and persistent.”
It was also during this time that the student started to notice the suspect more often on campus. The suspect often would be present at the same place the student was, and this led her to report him to the Department of Title IX, which addressed her concerns.
The student also reported the suspect to Campus Life and contacted EPD on Oct. 8. The student emailed EPD that she was concerned about her well-being with the suspect being around her and trying to get her attention.
On Oct. 22, the student saw the suspect on the second floor of Woodruff Library, where he followed her into the elevator and made random remarks about former President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and interning with Google.
After this interaction, the student contacted EPD again, saying that she wanted this behavior to stop and for the suspect to leave her alone.
This case has been reported to an investigator and is in the early stages of investigation, according to Shoemaker. There will be an attempt to handle the situation administratively before turning to the criminal justice system.
The investigation is currently closed, but if it reopens, it will be under the jurisdiction of EPD.
Theft by deception at Woodruff Circle
An international student contacted EPD around 11 p.m. while waiting at a Woodruff Circle shuttle stop on Oct. 28. At about 9 p.m., the suspect approached the student and asked to make a call using the student’s phone since the suspect claimed to have left her phone at a neighbor’s residence.
After the student loaned the suspect her phone, the suspect made a call and tried to delete the call information from the phone before handing it back to the student and leaving.
When the student received her phone back, she noticed that the suspect had transferred more than $2,000 out of her bank account through Venmo and into an unknown recipient’s account.
The student contacted Venmo and the bank and then called EPD.
EPD then called the number that was the recipient of the transaction. EPD was unable to establish who the recipient was.
“This is at least the second time that this particular scam has been worked that we know about since the beginning of the school year,” Shoemaker said.
The crime Shoemaker referenced occurred on Oct. 10.
Shoemaker added that EPD encourages students and the general public to not let strangers use their technological devices.
