College of Education professor attacked outside of Simpson Hall last Tuesday

news@dailylobo.com

Police say a male suspect attacked a woman on campus Tuesday night.

UNMPD interim public information officer Trace Peck said that after receiving a call about the assault, officers went to Simpson Hall and witnessed the suspect hitting the victim, who was lying on the grass. He said the victim, who was a professor of the College of Education, was initially trying to help the suspect.

“She saw the suspect being sick,” he said. “She went over to give him assistance, and then he started hitting her.”

The incident follows a string of recent assaults on campus. On Jan. 27, two men allegedly grabbed a female UNM student while she was jogging at Johnson Field, held her down and groped her under her clothes. On Feb. 4, a man allegedly groped a female UNM student over her clothes outside Castetter Hall.

But Peck said this incident was not related to the recent sexual assaults on campus.

Unlike the sexual assaults, no UNM alert was sent out by police regarding the most recent attack.

But Peck said it was unnecessary for the police to send out an alert to students because police had already arrested the suspect.

He said that in all cases, UNMPD only sends out alerts if police have not arrested the suspect yet.

“There was no potential danger … because the suspect was under arrest,” he said. “We only send (an alert) out if there’s a potential of danger, not to let everybody know who’s arrested.”
Peck said the suspect is now in custody.

“We were fortunate to see it happening, since we were able to charge the suspect with misdemeanor battery,” Peck said.

Although Peck was not able to provide the name and age of the suspect, he said he could confirm the man was not a UNM student.