More details have started to emerge about the incident involving Samuel Wallace, the student who was arrested last Tuesday after falsely pulling a fire alarm in DuBois College House and attacking the two investigating police officers.
"During the struggle, [Wallace] actually reached for the gun in the [police officer's] holster," said Richard Leuchs, a Wharton and Engineering junior and Wallace's roommate. "The police officer [then] brought the palm of his hand to his nose and wrestled him to the ground."
Leuchs was locked out of his room after the fire alarm, so he spent much of the late night and early morning in the DuBois lobby, waiting for the locksmith to come.
While there, he said he overheard a group of about 10 people, which consisted of dormitory graduate advisers, a police officer, security staff and Spectaguards. This is where Leuchs heard a significant amount of information regarding the incident.
A police source confirmed Leuchs' report that during the struggle Wallace reached for a police officer's gun.
Reached at his home in Massachusetts yesterday, Wallace declined comment until he could speak with his lawyer.
He has not returned to his room since the incident, but his belongings are still in place.
Leuchs added that the police initially suspected Wallace for pulling the fire alarm because of his strange behavior between midnight and 3 a.m.
"He was roaming the hall, asking the security guard for cigarettes and jumping up and down. The desk clerk was a little scared," Leuchs said.
The police declined to confirm or deny any further details of Leuchs' report, other than to say that Wallace was "acting in a strange manner."
Wharton sophomore Steven Leistner, another of Wallace's roommates, said, "I heard [Wallace] coming in and out of the room [between midnight and 3 a.m.]. Almost over and over."
According to Leuchs, once the police identified Wallace as the likely perpetrator, they led him away from the dorm and toward Walnut Street in order to interrogate him about the fire alarm.
Both Leistner and Leuchs said that they had observed strange behavior from Wallace in the short time that they knew him.
"I'd say I thought something was a little off," Leistner said. "When I met him, I thought I could see him doing something crazy."
