A Miami University bulletin put out Thursday evening alerted students of three male students subject to two different burglaries off campus.
Information regarding the cases has resulted in the arrest of an Oxford male and an issued warrant for a Hamilton male.
According to police reports, junior Theodore Catino was hospitalized after one assailant allegedly cut Catino's lip with a knife during a confrontation at about 1:57 a.m. Thursday. At McCullough Hyde hospital Catino received four stitches below his mouth. Sophomore Joe Buehler, Catino's cousin and fellow resident of their 21 W. Vine St. house, had his shirt slashed in the same confrontation, but sustained no injuries.
Ten minutes prior, around 1:57 a.m., Miami junior Chris Kelly awoke to a stranger in his bedroom at 16 E. Walnut St. holding a computer. Kelly reportedly chased the burglar out of the house and wrestled the computer out of the male assailant's hands.
Kelly said he had just gone to bed when he saw someone in his doorway with the laptop. When Kelly realized the male was a stranger, he jumped out of bed and chased the assailant out of the house.
"As soon as I knew there was someone in the house that wasn't right, I decided to go after him to get back what was stolen," Kelly said.
Once outside, Kelly said he realized there were two burglars. One reportedly threw a beer bottle at Kelly on Walnut Street. Kelly said he tackled the male with the computer and wrestled it from him after a struggle. Kelly wasn't injured, though he ran after the assailant only wearing his bed shorts. Once back at his residence, Kelly said he alerted the police.
Ten minutes later, Oxford Police received the call from Vine Street after Catino and Buehler were attacked by males matching the description of the white males reported at the Walnut Street burglary.
Catino said he and Buehler returned from uptown around 1:57 a.m. and saw two males in his living room through the front door window. Catino said they weren't alarmed to enter the house because he thought he knew the subjects inside.
"I thought it was a joke at first," Catino said. "Then we realized we had suspicious people in our house because it smelled like smoke and none of us smoke. They were unbelievably calm for having us walk in on them. They didn't say anything."
Catino then said they asked the subjects what they were doing. One male dropped the computer he was holding and ran.
Catino said he saw Buehler get punched after following the two outside. He said the two had apparently had beers on them because they shattered after someone in Catino's party pushed one male assailant to the ground. Catino said they then noticed one had a knife in his hand. Catino reportedly pushed one assailant down and he ran. Catino and Buehler again tackled him to the ground, but let him go when they realized he had a knife. Reportedly, after the two ran, Catino realized his lip had been sliced and Buehler noticed his shirt was slashed. Catino said after the confrontation was over, he realized that he could have been more seriously injured because of the knife.
"We were just really lucky," Catino said. "(OPD) did a great job, a cruiser was at our house in about 30 seconds-(it was) just a lot of luck."
Both said they reacted to the situation-Kelly said when the beer bottle was thrown he knew he was going to fight and Catino said it was in defense when he saw an assailant hit his cousin.
"It happened so fast," Catino said. "We didn't want to fight or chase him, but it was them attracting us and our house."
Gregory Robinson, 25, of 5032 College Corner Pike was charged with two counts of aggravated burglary Thursday morning after OPD followed informational leads that connected him with the burglaries of the residences. Darrell Gabbard, 28, of Hamilton is facing charges for the same two counts of aggravated burglary, plus another count of burglary in a College Corner Pike residence theft of electronics from Oxford resident Richard Benge, 45. An unidentified female resident of the area reportedly gave the OPD a written statement involving Gabbard to all three burglaries early Thursday morning.
Sgt. Squance of the OPD said the investigation is still in its early stages and ongoing referring to how many cases Robinson and Gabbard could be involved with.
"We'll be trying to link these guys to other burglaries (OPD has) had (in Oxford)," Squance said.
The academic semester has had numerous Campus Crime Alerts involving both on- and off-campus burglaries and theft of electronics such as laptop computers. Squance also said that all three residences burglarized Thursday morning are examples of assailants entering through unlocked doors. Squance said the Miami male students who chased Robinson and Gabbard took huge risk in confronting the apparently armed burglars.
"(They are) two criminals picking out easy targets and stealing from students who leave doors open," Squance said. "Never ever should you chase someone who is stealing your stuff. Your life is not worth a laptop computer."
