A brawl broke out on the first floor of the Regis residence hall between Fairfield University student residents and three non-student males from New Jersey early Saturday morning, according to the Department of Public Safety.
While addressing FUSA Senate on Sunday, Officer John Ritchie said that the three suspects were believed to be the friends of a University student’s friend, and one of the men was carrying a firearm. All three non-students have since been charged with counts of trespassing. According to the first floor RA, junior Gabriel Rojas, the fight began rather abruptly when the three suspects entered Regis asking, “Where are all the bitches?!” A small scuffle then ensued after a freshmen male and Regis resident, who was granted anonymity, told the three non-students to disperse. This was quickly broken up by another student whom Rojas dubbed “the Peacemaker.” “One resident came out into the hall saying that they were all friends and then he stuck his hand out for a handshake,” said Rojas.
“The Peacemaker” was reportedly then punched in the head by the one of the male trespassers he was shaking hands with. Rojas, along with three other RAs, appeared on the scene at this time as the three men in question began to flee.
Public Safety later responded, followed by the Fairfield Police Department. The sought-after trio was later detained, identified and arrested, in that order, by the Fairfield Police.
According to Sergeant Ritchie, the firearm was found when the suspect tried to get rid of it. Rojas was more than relieved that first the gun was discovered and fortunately not turned on a student or officer.
“I’m just glad that…no one was seriously hurt,” he said, “When the entire main foyer heard on the [radio] scanner that a firearm was found, there was sort of a realization of how much more serious this was.” Rojas made reference to the Virginia Tech shootings that took place in April of earlier this year that took the lives of 33 members of the university community The University has not been treating the matter lightly. Mark Reed, Vice-President for the Office of Student Affairs, was contacted in the middle of the night in what he called a rare occurrence because of the presence of a firearm, according to his Senate presentation.
For most current information on this developing story, please see Thursday’s issue of The Mirror.
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