Category: Crime and safety

A PhD student, who asked to remain anonymous, told Madison365 in an interview Wednesday that he was walking near the Nicholas Recreation Center on October 16 when a man swatted his phone out of his hand from behind, shattering the phone screen on the ground. At first, he assumed it was accidental, but said when he turned, a man called him an ethnic slur and seemed ready to fight. He was able to pick up his phone and leave the scene, and called police from his apartment.

A Madison man now faces multiple charges, including disorderly conduct, following what UW-Madison Police called a hate crime incident on campus last month.

A Madison man faces hate crime allegations following a mid-October confrontation near the Nicholas Recreation Center, on the UW-Madison campus.

This hate crime, one of several racially-charged incidents against Asian campus community members within the last year, reflects a surge of on-campus incidents since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At about 6:45 p.m. on Oct. 16, a UW student of Asian descent was walking home from the Nicholas Recreation Center when a man approached him. A UWPD report said that 34-year-old Gary Stephens of Madison slapped the victim’s phone from his hand without being provoked, smashing it on the ground. Stephens uttered a racial slur to the student, according to the report.

It was an eventful Homecoming on UW Madison’s campus for both students and campus police.According to the UW-Madison Police Department, officers issued a total of 11 citations. Nine of them were for underage alcohol use.

0 people were arrested, including eight UW students during the Badgers’ win over Iowa. UW-Madison Police said 11 citations were issued, including nine for underage alcohol use.

At roughly five minutes to one, a white sedan with a broken right headlight sped through the intersection of East Campus Mall and University Ave., pursued by a police vehicle. The driver was continually honking as he drove through the intersection in the bus lane. The car then turned onto Lake St., only to come back down University driving against traffic minutes later.

Police found $13,000 in fake cash during his arrest.

A 26-year-old Madison man reportedly had thousands of dollars in counterfeit cash on him Tuesday when he was arrested for allegedly spending it on the University of Wisconsin campus. According to the UW Police Dept., Ishmael Riley spent the funny money at least three times on the campus. Police did not indicate if they have found evidence of him trying to pass it off-campus.

A Madison resident was arrested Tuesday after committing three counts of fraud, using counterfeit money during each incident. Over $13,000 in counterfeit money was later located in the suspect’s possession, said University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department Director of Communications Marc Lovicott.

The UW-Madison Police Department is actively investigating these incidents.

Suspect is in custody, there is no continued threat to community, Mayor Rhodes-Conway says.

A Madison police officer was injured by gunshots during an attempted arrest early Sunday morning, according to the City of Madison Police Department. It is the first incident in over 20 years that a MPD officer has been shot in the line of duty.

Wisconsin’s home football game against Michigan Saturday saw an increase in game ejections, ambulance calls and arrests across the season. A high of 50 people were ejected from the game, but only 33 were University of Wisconsin-Madison students.

“Only a fairly small number of students who experience an assault request a formal investigation,” said UW’s Title IX Coordinator Laurn Hasselbacher, JD. “In the vast majority of cases, the Title IX office does not press for students to file formal complaints in order to respect personal choice and autonomy.”

The officers are stationed between Charter and Mills streets.

UWPD began a weeklong enforcement campaign Tuesday along University Avenue, one of the busiest streets on campus. Community officer Jake Lepper said the problem is focused in the block between the Charter and Mills Street intersections, where there is a lot of construction.

Illegally entering the street is dangerous for both motorists and pedestrians, but some students see it as the only option due to construction on the corner of University Avenue and Charter Street that currently blocks students from using a portion of sidewalk.

“I’m extremely dismayed to see UWPD taking such an aggressive approach to a design problem,” said Tyler Katzenberger, the ASM press office director. “Their increased presence is especially harmful for Black and Indigenous students who are more likely to be stopped, fined, and possibly even assaulted.”

UWPD began a weeklong enforcement campaign Tuesday along University Avenue, one of the busiest streets on campus. Community officer Jake Lepper said the problem is focused in the block between the Charter and Mills Street intersections, where there is a lot of construction.

University of Wisconsin-Madison students caught illegally crossing the street could get warnings or fines.

A sexual assault reportedly happened Sunday in a southeast residence hall on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, according to a crime warning sent to students.

The university has not released the exact location of the sexual assault reported on campus; however, a crime warning sent to students today said it took place in a southeast residence hall.

Madison police say officers were called to the 500 block of W. Washington Avenue just after 11 p.m. Thursday for a complaint of two people climbing and hanging on the crane near the intersection of Bassett Street.

A Dane County court denied a request to lower the bond for one of two men accused of killing a Madison couple in the UW Madison Arboretum.Khari Sanford, 20, is accused of two counts of first degree intentional homicide.

In an attempt to the hide from the officers, the suspects apparently took a page from action movies and started climbing higher to get away from police. Just like in the movies though, it didn’t work, and officers said the students came down once they saw firefighters had arrived on scene.

While some student activists saw progress, advocacy for addressing campus policing issues continues to unfold.

Officers got to the scene and took the man — 32-year-old Danion M ODell of Madison — into custody within a minute of being dispatched.

The UW-Madison Police Department reported 22 first aid calls and 19 paramedic calls over the course of UW’s 34-7 win over Eastern Michigan Saturday.

No one was injured in the incident.

The UW Madison Police Department has released their report of incidents during Saturday’s Badger game against Eastern Michigan, showing a sharp increase since last week’s season opener.

At about 9 a.m. Friday, UW police received a report of a man with a gun in the parking lot of the Waisman Center, 1500 Highland Ave., and another caller reported the man had fired a shot into the ground, UW police spokesperson Marc Lovicott said in a statement.

Officers arrested two men — 26-year-old David Cartagena of Madison and 25-year-old Chikezie Obiora of Milwaukee — on tentative charges of burglary, resisting and obstructing, and disorderly conduct.

With students returning to campus for the 2021-22 school year, scammers are out in full force. UW Police Department says it’s seeing a “massive uptick” in the number of scams targeting students and community members. According to a report from the UW Police Department, the FBI tracked over $3.5 billion in losses due to scams in 2019.

According to a news release from the UW-Madison Police Department, at approximately 5:30 a.m. Thursday morning two suspects entered an unlocked apartment in the University Apartments indenting to steal property.

Marc Lovicott, the UWPD Director of Communications, says this game day is extra special because fans are finally back. “This is like a double first year because we didn’t have a first-year last year and I feel like there’s this pent-up excitement,” Lovicott said.

According to a release, 10 citations were issued for underage alcohol consumption, while one citation was issued for possession of alcohol on UW Lands. One citation was also issued for obstructing an officer.

While an oven and lab room suffered significant damage, nobody was injured.

The fire forced people to evacuate the building, MFD reported.

The Madison Fire Department reports no injuries after a fire flared out of a laboratory oven in the Wisconsin Energy Institute Tuesday.

Loyal Crawford faces charges of criminal disorderly conduct and disorderly conduct while armed, according to the UW Police Department.

The Madison Police Department says that when officers arrived, they found David Beloungy inside the house, along with stolen belongings. The 27-year-old Beloungy was also in possession of tools that officers say indicated he intended to commit a burglary.

A UW-Madison Police Department spokesperson stated Tuesday that a physical altercation happened between two people, one of which was Crawford, on Saturday, Aug. 21 in a residence hall. UWPD said Crawford allegedly had a knife during the fight.

In a letter sent by the university, Chief Kristen Roman told students the various reports of crimes off-campus near where students live are “understandably” concerning. In one instance, a 17-year-old boy was shot and killed over two weeks ago in a drive-by shooting on Lathrop Street, near Camp Randall.

Madison Police Department officers arrested a 27-year-old man Tuesday after he was suspected of burglarizing a sorority house on the University of Wisconsin- Madison campus.

The UW-Madison police department says freshman Loyal Crawford, who was dismissed from the Badgers football team on Tuesday, was involved in a fight and cited for disorderly conduct.