Around 12 p.m. Monday, University Police arrested a male student in Lecture Hall 151 after Long Beach Police issued a warrant for the student’s arrest as part of an active investigation.
According to Terri Carbaugh, associate vice president of government and media relations at Cal State Long Beach, LBPD directly contacted UPD officials Monday morning to assist in finding and apprehending the student under the terms of the warrant.
The nature of the warrant has yet to be confirmed by either police department.
Julia Sampson, a sophomore history major, was in the same class – a section of interpersonal communication taught by Jose Rodriguez – as the student at the time of his arrest and was, at first, unaware as to exactly what was happening.
“One of the [teaching assistants] in our lecture walked to the front of the hall and whispered something to our professor,” she said. “Our professor then asked if [the student] was here…then told him there was someone waiting for him in the back.”
Two UPD officers were waiting for the student, stationed at each of the room’s exits.
“It wasn’t until I saw [an officer’s] gun that I realized what was going on,” Sampson said.
The student was removed to the LH 151 foyer, where students say he was handcuffed and read his Miranda rights. After retrieving the student’s backpack from the lecture hall, officers escorted him to a police van waiting at the student drop-off zone on West Campus Drive, between Liberal Arts 3 and Liberal Arts 4.
All accounts report that the male was cooperative with the officers and Carbaugh confirmed that there was no threat to campus safety at any point during the arrest.
“The UPD was very appropriate and managed the situation very elegantly,” Rodriguez said.
The investigation surrounding the warrant is ongoing.