By Zach Snider
Sports Editor
The Mount Vernon Police Department arrested 23-year-old Willard native Collin Leitz Monday morning on three charges of aggravated menacing, according to the official police report obtained by the Lakeholm Viewer.
Police arrested Leitz, a student at Mount Vernon Nazarene University, after an investigation into reported threats against fellow students Phillip Rodgers, Andrew Schrack and a female student whose family requested that her name not be used, though it is contained in the police report.
The police report states that the incident occurred around 12:35 a.m. on Jan. 21 and was reported to the MVPD around 5 p.m. on Jan. 23. Leitz was removed from campus on Jan. 22 pending further inquiry.
The details of Leitz’s threats were not contained in either the police report or a campus-wide alert email sent Jan. 28 around 5 p.m., but the police report states that the female student was Leitz’s ex-girlfriend.
The report states that Leitz was denied permission to give the female student personal letters he had written to her prior to his removal from campus and that he turned the letters over to University officials, asking that they be relayed to her. The letters were turned over to the MVPD.
Rick Engstrom, director of residence life at MVNU, filed the official police report, telling police that he would be in contact with the involved students and University administrators but that other campus students would not be immediately notified.
The report also states that Engstrom told police that Leitz was not to be on MVNU property and requested extra patrols by the MVPD.
Assistant City Prosecutor Rob Broeren requested that an arrest warrant be issued for Leitz on Jan. 23. According to the report, warrants were issued the same day.
On Jan. 28, Students, faculty and University staff received an email from Dr. Lanette Sessink, vice president for student life, notifying them of the incident and assuring them that the University is cooperating with the police department as it continues its investigation.
The email noted that the incident does not appear to pose a further threat to campus and that the University would continue to inform the campus community if there was cause for broader concern.
Sessink was unable to provide any further information upon request.