A UNM student was arrested on charges of aggravated assault Wednesday evening after admitting to UNM police he fired a BB into a Hokona Hall residence room.
Brandon Bednarski, a first year student, was arrested by UNMPD and transported to Bernalillo County Detention Center.
Police responded to a call of BB shots being fired into a residence hall room at Hokona Hall. According to the UNMPD report, officers arrived at the scene and observed holes in a window screen consistent with the size of a BB. Officers also noted damage matching the size of a BB to an interior wall of the room.
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The victim in the case, who called UNMPD, was reportedly in the room at the time the BB was fired.
The victim told police she thought the shots could have come from the direction of Laguna de Vargas Hall.
When officers arrived at the scene, they observed multiple male subjects watching them from a third floor window in Laguna de Vargas Hall, UNMPD Lieutenant Michael Omtvedt said. One of the male subjects was watching officers with binoculars.
Police on the scene reportedly knocked on all the doors of the third floor of the residence hall, and when no one answered, they had a residence advisor open the doors on the floor.
According to the report, police entered room 304 and observed a picture of Bill Clinton hanging on the wall with numerous BB holes in it and a BB that was similar to the one found in the victim's residence room.
While they were there, Bednarski entered the room. The report stated that police asked Bednarski where the BB gun was and he told them it was under his bed.
Police then asked if Bednarski knew anything about BB shots being fired into Hokona Hall and he reportedly admitted to shooting at the room.
He was then arrested and taken to the UNM Police Department.
"He came along very voluntarily as I understand," Omtvedt said.
This was not the only incident of a BB being fired into the victim's room.
She had filed a UNM police report the day before when another BB had been fired at her room.
Bednarski told police the only BB he had fired into the room was on Wednesday, not Tuesday.
His Co2 BB gun and the BB that was found in the victim's room were booked into evidence by UNMPD.
BB guns and firearms are prohibited on campus, Omtvedt said.
Randy Boeglin, UNM dean of students, said his office has a number of disciplinary options available.
Without speaking about the specific case, Boeglin said a student who keeps a BB gun in a residence hall and who endangers another student by firing it into another room, violates both residence hall policy and the student code of conduct.
In cases such as this, Boeglin said, a proceeding will move forward examining both rules that may have been violated. The process includes a charge letter and a hearing. If the defendant is found responsible, the residence hall contract can be terminated and the student could be suspended from the University.
