As Matt Bruno and Chris Dunbar opened the door on the way out of
their Saxon suite, they were shoved back inside by three men
carrying guns. The assailants proceeded to tie the student athletes
at their ankles and hands, before stealing thousands of dollars of
property.
Such is Bruno’s description of how the armed robbery of
his suite went down early Sunday morning.
Bruno, a heralded freshman sprinter on the UCLA track team, said
the suspects pulled guns and told Dunbar, also a sprinter, to get
on the floor. Dunbar was then tied up with duct tape, Bruno
said.
Eventually, Bruno and Dunbar were shoved under their beds, both
of them tied up, Bruno said.
As the assailants were loading miscellaneous property into bags,
Bruno said, someone knocked on the door.
The assailants told Dunbar to go to the door and tell the people
knocking to come back later, Bruno said.
Briona Reynolds, a sophomore shot putter on the women’s
track and field team, said she and Joe Tomasello, a football player
in his first year at UCLA and roommate of Bruno and Dunbar at the
time of the crime, were coming from Puzzles eatery to deliver food
to Dunbar. Dunbar told them to go away and come back in 10 minutes,
Reynolds said.
Neither Tomasello nor Dunbar could be reached for comment
Thursday. Earlier in the week Dunbar briefly discussed the robbery,
saying no significant physical harm was done to him or Bruno as the
suspects stole clothes, shoes, cell phones, laptop computers and a
PlayStation 2.
Both Dunbar and Bruno said they don’t know who the
suspects are.
And neither do the police at this point.
UCPD “canvassed” the Saxon suites Wednesday night,
knocking on residents’ doors, looking for any information
about the crime or the suspects.
Nancy Greenstein, director of community services for UCPD, said
the officers’ field work Wednesday showed the department was
“leaving no stone unturned.”
“There’s a lot of information out there,”
Greenstein said.
Alexis Matsui, who lived next door to Dunbar and Bruno before
they were moved out of their suite, said the police stopped by her
room Wednesday. Matsui, a second-year world arts and culture
student and a Daily Bruin intern, said UCPD detective Tony
Dueñez asked if she was home at the time of the robbery and if
she or her roommates had heard or seen anything strange.
Matsui said she “left the building around the time (the
robbery) happened” and added that Bruno and Dunbar told her
of the crime “right afterward,” before the police were
called.
Neither Bruno nor Dunbar said whether they had called the police
right away.
But there seems to be a period of time of at least an hour
between when the suspects fled and when the robbery was
reported.
A police bulletin posted on the UCPD’s Web site and
throughout on-campus housing areas says the crime happened at 1:15
a.m. According to Dunbar, the assailants were in the victims’
room for about 25 minutes. Police were contacted by a Campus
Security Officer at 2:47 a.m., according to the police log.
Reynolds also said Bruno and Dunbar told her about the robbery
shortly after it happened. Dunbar and Bruno came over to
Reynolds’ suite nearby, where she and Tomasello had gone
after Dunbar told them to go away, Reynolds said.
UCPD remains tight-lipped about the crime and its
investigation.
Greenstein only said that the investigation is ongoing and no
one, including UCLA students, has been ruled out as a suspect.
Earlier in the week a UCPD officer did say the crime appears to
have been a “home invasion robbery”
““Â meaning the victims were studied by the suspects
before the robbery.
Meeting with concerned students near the Saxon volleyball courts
Tuesday night, Officer Andy Ikeda noted that the suspects in an
on-campus rape case had also hung around the dorms for some time
before allegedly raping a UCLA student. He said UCLA students can
help themselves by reporting all suspicious activity.
“You guys are as safe as you keep yourselves,” he
said.
With reports from Jessica Bach, Rachel Makabi, Christian Mignot
and Betsy Popken, Daily Bruin Senior Staff.