The Emory Wheel regularly meets with Emory Police Department (EPD) Records Manager Ed Shoemaker (87G, 90G) and Director of Campus Safety Communications Morieka Johnson (94C, 24L) and uses EPD’s public crime log to inform the Emory University community about recent crime on and around Emory’s campuses.
To report a crime, contact EPD at 404-727-6111 or police@emory.edu.
Arrest, criminal trespass at Emory Student Center (ESC)
ESC management staff reported to EPD an unauthorized female individual loitering around the building at about 6:45 a.m. on Nov. 17. According to EPD, the building was closed to the public at that time. EPD received multiple calls about an individual in the previous weeks. This individual does not appear to be an Emory student, employee or possess any form of Emory ID. When EPD arrived to respond to the previous instances, officers did not successfully locate the individual.
When EPD arrived on Nov. 17, officers located the individual sitting in an ESC study area on the third floor while the building was not open to the public. EPD asked the individual if she had an Emory ID, to which she replied that she did not. She did possess a driver’s license, and EPD was able to verify her identity with some degree of certainty and determined she had no apparent reason to be in the facility. Due to her repeated offenses, EPD issued her a criminal trespass warning.
Upon being issued the warning, the subject requested to be taken to the North Decatur Building, where an EPD station is located. EPD complied with her request. At the police station, she asked to speak to an officer. However, before her request could be fulfilled, the woman said she was leaving to purchase a cup of coffee and did not return to the building for several hours.
When the subject returned to the building at about 12:15 p.m., she met with EPD in the building’s lobby. She asked to speak with a supervisor, and EPD called in the sergeant. The female subject told EPD that she is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and said that the building she entered was constructed on Muscogee ancestral land. She also claimed to be a biochemical engineer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and she said Emory students were being “weaponized,” which is the reason for her continued visits.
After determining that the subject was unaffiliated with Emory, an EPD sergeant asked her to leave the EPD station at the North Decatur Building. However, she refused to leave the premises and officers arrested her. EPD searched her belongings in conjunction with the arrest, but they found no contraband or weapons. EPD then transported the individual to the DeKalb County Jail and charged her with misdemeanor offensive criminal trespass.
While being transported to the jail, the subject continued to talk about her role at the CDC, which she then said was a bioterrorism consultant. While in custody, she also claimed that COVID-19 vaccines are fake and repeated her claim that Emory students and staff are being “weaponized.” Officers were not sure what the individual was referring to. She also said Emory was built on tribal land, and because of that, she had a right to be there as a descendant of the Muscogee Nation. For now, the case has been cleared by arrest, but EPD will continue to follow up.
