A male student allegedly followed a College sophomore off the elevator in Rodin College House and attempted to break into her room after she had entered it yesterday afternoon.
After a fight with police, he was arrested. The student, whose name police did not release last night, was charged with criminal trespassing, attempted burglary and assault on police, according to Det. Daniel Brooks of the Philadelphia Police.
At about 4:30 p.m. yesterday, according to the College sophomore who was followed off the elevator, a fellow passenger on the crowded elevator asked her for the time.
When the victim - who asked that her name be withheld for privacy reasons -reached her floor, one of the upper floors of Rodin, he was the only other person on the elevator and followed her off, she wrote in an e-mail.
He asked for her name and where she lived, saying he lived a few floors away. He then told her that she didn't live there and that she should come downstairs with him.
"This is not reality. You are not in reality," he said, according to the victim. She entered her unlocked room, while he stayed outside.
He started knocking on the door and the victim's roommates leaned against the door to stop him from coming in.
"He then proceeded to knock on the door with continuing ferocity," the victim wrote.
At this point, the victim said she called the police and joined her roommates in leaning on the door.
While the male student was knocking, "he kept saying jibberish," the victim wrote.
Her roommate, also a College sophomore, added, "His words didn't make much sense - they were angry and irrational."
He also ripped signs off their door and slid them underneath.
When Penn Police arrived and tried to get I.D. from the male student he "took off his jacket and took a fighter's stance," Brooks said.
The suspect was taken out of the building in a stretcher "because he refused to cooperate," another of the victim's roommates said.
The investigation is ongoing, Division of Public Safety officials said.
The incident left the victims rattled, but they all said they still feel safe at Penn.
"Right now I'm pretty shaken up - getting into the elevator is a little scary now," said the girl who was followed out of the elevator.
While also unsettled by the incident, one roommate said, "I don't think I feel less safe now because Penn Police responded fairly quickly and it wasn't an outside Philadelphia resident who somehow broke through security or anything."
All three said they will pay more attention to their safety.
"We are now locking the doors at all times, even when we are in the room and will begin to check through the peephole before just to make sure we recognize the person," said one of the roommates.
