A resident of the University Park High Rises at 255 Buckingham Way reported witnessing the aftermath of a robbery just before midnight Wednesday.

Joshua Ochoa, a 21-year-old political science urban studies and planning major, told Xpress he heard a man screaming, “Help! Police!” at around 11:50 p.m. At first, Ochoa suspected it was a false alarm.

“I just thought it was a joke cause that happens sometimes on campus where people just like yell out their windows or something,” he said. “So I just kind of brushed it off the first time and then it happened again for a third time and I was like ok something’s not right.” 

Ochoa then looked out his window and saw the man screaming for help, and within 45 seconds University Police officers were on the scene. The UPN building’s close proximity to the police station, under a mile, likely contributed to the speedy response.

“I saw the police cars pulling up into the back entrance of the parking structure,” Ochoa reported. “And so two cars went back behind there and the police officers ran up the hill to the trail that goes behind the parking structure.”

Police quickly confronted a man who was perched atop the parking structure that Ochoa’s upper-floor apartment overlooks, affording him a clear view of the scene.

“A lot of police offers got out of their cars and they started shining their lights at the top of the carport,” said Ochoa. “They all pointed their guns on [the suspect], and they were screaming at him to get down. Then the suspect gave in, he dropped his stuff off the side of the carport and he sat down on the edge and jumped down.”

The suspect allegedly surrendered peacefully and was transported away from the scene in a patrol car within five minutes according to Ochoa.

UPD declined to comment as of 3 a.m. Thursday morning, and though the incident report for Wednesday night’s alleged crime is absent from the department’s online crime log, the log lists a Monday afternoon petty theft crime also on Buckingham Way.