University Police Department officers arrested a UF student Tuesday in the alleged sexual assault and kidnapping of a woman on campus earlier this month.
Zhishen Wang, a 27-year-old UF pharmaceutical sciences graduate student, was arrested for assaulting an acquaintance July 8 at Corry Village Apartments — UF’s graduate and family housing behind the campus’ bat houses and next to a Baby Gator Child Development Center — according to a UPD arrest report.
UPD barred Wang from campus by issuing a trespass warning, UF spokesperson Cynthia Roldan said. The university did not issue a warning about the incident. The Clery Act requires UF, at its discretion, to notify students and faculty of campus threats, such as sexual assault and gun violence, through “timely warning messages.”
The university did not violate the act, Roldan wrote in an email to The Alligator after this article's initial publication, because there was no threat to public safety. Wang was swiftly arrested, and there was not an ongoing threat because his actions appeared targeted toward one individual, she said.
UF’s most recent warning, issued June 23, alerted the community Deontre Donnell Mason, a suspect who used a cell phone to record multiple victims without their knowledge, was being held on a $900,000 bond in Alachua County.
According to the police report, Wang’s alleged victim came to retrieve her belongings at his apartment around 5:46 p.m July 8. Wang did not leave the items outside as she requested, she told police, so she had to enter his apartment, where Wang hugged her and refused to let her go.
Wang confined the victim to the apartment against her will and raped her several times as she repeatedly tried to escape, according to the report.
His arrest comes months after Antwine Johnson, a 32-year-old Gainesville resident, allegedly kidnapped one woman on the outskirts of UF’s campus and raped another at Gainesville Place Apartments in September.
Oscar Vargas, a 21-year-old Santa Fe College student and past social events chair of the UF fencing club, was arrested Dec. 7 after police said he admitted to detectives that he sexually assaulted an acquaintance in June. He pleaded not guilty Dec. 15, 2021, and attended a case management hearing July 18; his next court date is Oct. 10, case prosecutor Ryan Nagel said.
Andrew C. Smith, an 19-year-old UF student, was arrested on Jan. 21 after Gainesville police recommended charging him with sexual assault. He allegedly raped his accuser after a semi-formal fraternity event on Dec. 9.
Michael Nanosky Jr., a 20-year-old former philanthropy chairman for UF’s Theta Chi fraternity, was arrested for sexual assault last last year and pleaded guilty to a lesser felony, aggravated assault. A judge sentenced him to five years of probation and ordered him to drop out of UF, stay out of Gainesville and pay for his victim’s therapy. He also forbade him from contacting the victim, her family and her sorority, and ordered him to attend mandatory counseling twice a month and complete 750 hours of community service.
Wang is being held at Alachua County jail on a bond of $150,000.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Contact Mickenzie Hannon at mhannon@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @MickenzieHannon.
Mickenzie is the local elections reporter and previously covered city and county commission for The Alligator’s Metro Desk. She's a fourth-year journalism major and is specializing in data journalism. When Mickenzie isn’t writing, she enjoys watching horror movies, reading, playing with her pets and attending concerts.
