Members of a UF fraternity assisted University Police officers in the arrest of an Ocala man who allegedly broke into the fraternity house mother’s bedroom early Thursday morning.
Police charged Solomon Jamel Taylor III, 23, of Ocala, with unarmed burglary of a dwelling, a felony and trespassing, a misdemeanor.
At 2:13 a.m. Thursday, Patricia Arnold, 50, was sleeping when Taylor entered her bedroom through an unlocked balcony door at the Kappa Alpha Order fraternity house at 5 Fraternity Row, according to the UPD arrest report.
Arnold’s bedroom is attached to the house, and Taylor climbed on a fenced deck, which was 5 feet from the ground, to get onto the balcony, according to the report.
When Taylor entered the room, Arnold’s maltipoo, Milo, started barking and woke Arnold up.
Arnold said she saw Taylor standing several feet away from her bed.
“I froze for a second,” she said. “It didn’t seem real, so I screamed.”
According to the report, Taylor fled from the room.
Arnold said she grabbed a robe and went upstairs to tell fraternity brothers what had happened.
Several fraternity brothers went outside and patrolled around the house, Arnold said. They found Taylor hiding behind a tree and chased after him.
The men caught Taylor near the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house and held him until UPD officers arrived.
Police arrested Taylor after Arnold identified him as the man who broke into her bedroom, according to the report.
At the time of the break-in, Taylor had an active trespass warning, preventing him from being on UF campus following an incident several years ago.
In 2009, UPD arrested Taylor on misdemeanor battery and stalking charges after he was accused of trying to touch a Santa Fe College student in his groin area while they were driving on Hull Road, according to court records.
According to the report, Taylor has no affiliation with UF or the fraternity.
UPD spokesman Maj. Brad Barber praised the collaboration between officers and fraternity members in Taylor’s arrest.
“One of the things this incident illustrates is working together as a campus community, we were able to successfully make an apprehension and arrest,” he said.
Police booked Taylor in Alachua County Jail at 4:46 a.m. Thursday with a $20,000 bond, which he met late that evening.
Contact Chris Alcantara at calcantara@alligator.org.
