Arrests were down at campus-area block parties WoodFest and ChittShow this year, but police were still called to Woodruff Avenue that weekend after a 51-year-old male allegedly entered the apartment of an Ohio State student and assaulted him with a wrench.
Ryan Connolly, a second-year in marketing and East Woodruff Avenue resident, was with friends at about 5 p.m. on April 6 when the man walked into his apartment.
“We had no idea who he was or what he was doing,” Connolly said. “We were all just like, ‘Who are you?'”
He said the man walked up to another resident, asked if he lived there and then slapped him in the face. Connolly and his four roommates were able to remove the man from the apartment without immediate further incident.
“We threw him outside, and he was out there kicking the door for a while, but he finally walked away,” Connolly said.
Zach Kruse, Connolly’s roommate and a second-year in biology, said no one locked the door after the encounter because the man didn’t appear to be a legitimate threat.
“We were playing music – not loud, but that’s what must have drawn him,” he said.
Connolly said people were coming and going from the apartment, which also led the residents to leave the door unlocked.
However, the man returned to the apartment at about 9:30 p.m., according to the Columbus Division of Police report, wielding a wrench.
Connolly said he didn’t notice the man had returned until one of the women present alerted him.
“I look up, and he’s standing in the doorway with a wrench,” he said. “He was like, ‘Let’s do this,’ and smashed the lamp on the table, and I’m just thinking, ‘I have to protect these girls,’ so I jumped up and that’s when he smacked me across the face with the wrench.”
The woman named as a witness on the police report did not immediately return request for comment.
Kruse said he was in the apartment when the man re-entered and returned to the living room when another resident told him the man was back.
“It was a blur, it happened so fast,” Kruse said. “I ran out there … There were like five guys on him, my friend Ryan was bleeding from the chin, and he completely shattered our lamp. After the whole thing, I just thought, ‘Come on, man … you come back with a wrench?'”
Kruse, who was not named on the report as a witness, said he and his roommates disarmed and restrained the man until police arrived.
None of the residents know the man, but the police report stated he is a resident of the nearby Ohio Stater apartments, located at 2060 N. High St.
Gary Banks, a leasing consultant for Ohio Stater housing and a fourth-year in finance, said the man is a resident there and is known to cause trouble from time to time.
“Typically he’s a good resident. He’s actually very docile and easygoing,” Banks said.
Connolly, who sustained minor injuries according to the police report, said he plans to press charges, which are listed on the report as criminal trespass and assault.
A Columbus Police official said Wednesday that the investigation into the incident is pending.
The man could not be reached for comment, and The Lantern does not name individuals who haven’t been charged with crimes.