By Bryon Wells
Arizona Daily Wildcat
April 13, 1998

Police Beat

A University Medical Center doctor called university police Thursday after a student came into the urgent care center and said somebody shot him with a pellet rifle at the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity house, 1011 N. Tyndall Ave.

The 19-year-old student told police a group of men were shooting bottles on a second-floor hallway at the fraternity house about 3:30 p.m.

As the student walked down a hallway on the first floor at that time, a ricocheting pellet punctured a hole in his T-shirt and struck him on the side of his body, police reports stated.

The student told police he went back to his room at the Coronado Residence Hall, 822 E. Fifth St., because the pellet had not penetrated the skin, but decided he'd better go to UMC when he started to feel pain about 7 p.m., reports stated.

The student told police he did not know any of the men involved in the afternoon target practice and that he did not want to get the house in trouble, reports stated.

Doctors treated the round, red welt on the student's side and then released him after police photographed the contusion and took his shirt for evidence, reports stated.

In the courtyard of the Zeta Beta Tau house, police later found about 22 empty nitrous oxide cartridges, used for propellant in pellet rifles, as well as several broken beer bottles, reports stated.

Various residents told the officers they did not see anybody shooting bottles that day, reports stated.

Police cited a woman on a minor traffic violation Thursday after she struck a pedestrian who was crossing North Campus Drive near North Park Avenue.

The woman, identified as Claudia M. Lopez, 25, of Nogales, Ariz., was driving west on North Campus Drive about 11:30 a.m. while a 19-year-old woman was crossing the street walking north, police reports stated.

Lopez's vehicle struck the woman, who rolled over the hood of the car and landed on the pavement, reports stated. The woman was taken to University Medical Center, where she was able to tell police she remembered stepping off the curb at the pedestrian crosswalk.

Lopez later told police she did not see the woman until the impact. Lopez was cited for failure to provide proof of insurance and released from the scene.

A UA employee told university police Thursday that someone took his money from a locker at Bear Down Gym, 1428 E. University Blvd.

The employee told police he went to the gym for a workout at 11:50 a.m. and put his clothes in a locker.

When he returned at 12:30 p.m. to take a shower, he noticed that someone had been looking into his locker with a stick, police reports stated. The employee then put $18 and a watch into his gym bag in the locker and hit the showers.

About 10 minutes later, the employee discovered his locker was open and that somebody had rifled through his gym bag and taken his cash, reports stated.

While searching the building, police noticed some windows on the south side of the gym had been opened and the bars around them had been pried loose enough for someone to crawl through.

A student Thursday told university police someone scratched "smoke crack" on her vehicle while it was parked at the Main Gate Garage, 815 E. Second St.

The student told police her 1995 Toyota two-door sedan was parked on the third level of the garage between 2 p.m. Sunday, April 5 and 2 p.m. Thursday, April 9 when she noticed the message had been scrawled on her car.

Police Thursday warned two teenagers for skateboarding after receiving complaints of "hot-doggers" at Manzanita-Mohave Residence Hall, 1000 N. Park Ave.

Police arrived at the dorm at 4:17 p.m. and spotted the two skateboarders, who immediately started to leave, police reports stated.

The officer stopped them and asked if they had ever been warned for skateboarding on campus, to which they said they didn't know the dorm was UA property, reports stated.

The two young men told police their names, and a check indicated they had in fact been previously warned for skateboarding, reports stated.

The check also indicated one of the boys had given the officer a different first name, but he decided to come clean after the officer attempted to call his father, reports stated.

The officer warned the boy for reporting false information, warned both of them again about the UA skateboarding policy, then let them go, reports stated.

Police Beat is compiled from official University of Arizona Police Department reports.