On March 1, Assistant Chief Yearta met with the victim of the following incident, who is a Winthrop faculty member, as well as with various faculty members of the AAPI (Asian American/Pacific Islander) community. During this meeting, the victim explained to Assistant Chief Yearta that beginning in March, 2020 and lasting through March, 2021, the victim received a total of five notes at his office, located at Dalton Hall. These notes were either typed or handwritten and were either placed under the victim’s office door or attached to the victim’s office door. The notes contained various sayings regarding the COVID pandemic. The notes also contained various swear words, profanity, derogatory comments such as “go back to China.” The victim stated that after receiving each letter he discarded them in the trash. As such, no notes were available in order to process them for any evidentiary value.
During the course of the interview, the victim also explained that on at least two separate occasions he had requested various unknown students to wear a mask while inside of Dalton Hall. According to the victim, these unknown students would respond by cursing at the victim and utilizing other derogatory comments. Assistant Chief Yearta then asked the victim if he could describe the students in question or if he had any known issues with any other individuals. The victim then stated that he could not recall any descriptive information about the unknown students, nor did he know of anybody that would have written the notes. Assistant Chief Yearta then advised all parties that if they had a similar incident occur, including the notes or the interaction with the unknown students, to immediately contact the Winthrop University Police Department in order to have an officer respond to the scene.
On March 28, the Reporting Officer met with a Winthrop student at the Winthrop Police Department regarding a number of harassment incidents that occurred earlier that day. The student informed the R/O that she had been receiving inappropriate messages through Facebook from a
person she met through an ex-boyfriend. The student mentioned that she has only ever met him through Facebook and the last time she spoke to that subject was many months ago. The subject goes by many different names through various Facebook accounts but the student mentioned that she believed she figured out his realname, based on the name he used on the first account she knew him from. The student confirmed that the harasser is not a Winthrop student and that she believes he lives in Canada due to a message she received from her ex-boyfriend. The student’s ex-boyfriend also mentioned to her that he believes the harasser may have a criminal record.
The student’s ex-boyfriend has mentioned to her that he does not know why the harasser is sending her inappropriate messages. The ex-boyfriend did not want to talk to the police due to him being a felon in the past and being on probation. The student informed the R/O that the harasser is calling her a whore and is threatening to contact her mother and tell her that her daughter is a “whore bag” and that she has been “gang banged” many times since being in college. The student has told the harasser many times through Facebook messenger to stop contacting
her. The harasser has continued to harass and threaten the student and mentioned that he will l “knife every cop on [her] college in the throat same with whoever calls.”
The student provided the R/O with screen shots of all the messages she has recently received from the harasser. The student mentioned that she has not responded to or opened any more of the messages she has received from the harasser. The student mentioned to the R/O that she has already begun taking privacy measures, such as making all her social media accounts private–blocking/removing accounts she does not know personally–and informing her mother of the situation. Due to the harasser possibly living in Canada this case will be passed to Assistant Chief Yearta for further investigation.
On March 30, the reporting officer met with the victim in reference to a suspected stolen item. The item in question was described as an IPad Tablet that is valued at approximately $200. The victim stated that he had been performing maintenance in the Owens Hall building, when he noticed his work IPad was missing from the spot where he left it at. The victim stated that the IPad was left on the 1st floor trash can lid, close to the stairs. At that time, the victim attempted to locate the IPad using the FindMyIPhone app but was unsuccessful because the IPad had been turned off and had no signal. At this time, the R/O viewed the security camera footage but was unable to find any evidence leading to a possible Suspect. Also the R/O and Seargent Geralds did a walkthrough of Owens Hall and found no sign of an IPad of any kind.
