The first thing Raegan Fink saw when she got the shower in the Jennings Hall communal bathroom was a UF Alert that terrified her early Monday morning.
The alert read, “Armed Robbery at Jennings Hall. Avoid area or secure in place if nearby.”
She said she didn’t know what to do.
“I called my mom on the phone, and I started crying, and I was very worked up,” said Fink, a 19-year-old business management freshman.
She waited alone in the showers until the alert came in that said the suspects left the residence hall. She immediately ran to her room and locked the door.
In the next two hours, University Police arrested two men and a woman accused of stealing items from a dorm in the hall, according to a University Police arrest report.
Brittni Nikol Michaelis, of Gainesville, walked into Jennings Hall when a student opened the door, at 1509 Museum Rd., with Alexander Antonio Garcia, 21, of High Springs, and Jay Bharat Patel, 19, of Summerfield. The trio was there to confront Michaelis’ ex-boyfriend, who lives in the building, the arrest report said.
None of the three are UF students. The building needs a key fob to get inside, the report said.
Michaelis was in the hallway when Garcia and Patel went into her ex-boyfriend’s dorm room and took the student’s Playstation 4, three jackets and a gold watch, the report said. The student called his roommate and told him that people were in the room.
When the roommate went into the room, he saw Garcia and Patel with the items, the report said. Patel lifted his shirt and said, “I got a stick with me.” The roommate told police he saw what looked like a firearm.
Multiple witnesses told police Patel had a firearm, but police did not find a gun when they arrested him, the report said. When arrested, Patel told police he had a knife to threaten the student.
Police found a hair comb with a concealed knife blade in the handle, the report said.
The trio told police they wanted to steal from the student to teach him a lesson, the report said.
Michaelis and Garcia were charged with burglary of an occupied dwelling, the report said. Patel was charged with aggravated assault to commit a felony and armed burglary of a dwelling or structure.
Patel and Michaelis remained in the Alachua County Jail Tuesday. Patel has a $110,000 bond, and Michaelis has a $25,000 bond. Garcia was released on a $2,000 bond Tuesday.
Garcia could not be reached for comment.
“It could happen anytime, anywhere and we just live in a world today where obviously things are taken to the extreme,” Fink said.
Brittni Michaelis, Jay Patel, Alexander Garcia
