UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA
Campus police: String of incidents began in November
police arrest a graduate student over the groping incidents that began on campus in November.
A doctoral student at the University of Central Florida was arrested Friday and accused of inappropriately touching four women and trying to grab a fifth on campus between November and January.
Abdullah Mohammed Zaman, 30, faces three counts of battery and one count of attempted battery. A fifth charge is pending, police said.
The victims told police a man would strike up a conversation or ask for help, then either grope them or try to grab them.
“The reason we were able to make an arrest in this case were good police work, tips from the community, great witnesses and technology the university has installed over the years,” said UCF police Chief Richard Beary.
The first incident occurred Nov. 10, but was not reported until Jan. 22 after the victim’s mother saw the incidents in the media and thought it matched what happened to her daughter, police say.
The victim told police she was in Garage C near the Business Administration II building when a man approached her and asked for help jumping his car, according to the arrest affidavit. He said she had a scratch on her leg and touched it. She stepped back and he said it was on the other leg and touched it, the affidavit said.
The second incident was Nov. 28 in Garage A. He went up to a woman who was getting into her car and put his hand on her back, saying she had a scratch on it, the affidavit said. When she turned around, he pushed her up against her car, touched her leg and said, “I bet you have scratches here, too,” the affidavit said.
Other incidents occurred Dec. 4, Jan. 10 and Jan. 22, police said. One woman said Zaman touched her breasts after asking for help with a vending machine. Another said he grabbed her buttocks after asking where to find the science building.
Police were able to see the suspect on surveillance video during the Jan. 22 incident, when he reached for another woman’s leg inside a parking garage, the affidavit said. The video showed him walking from the CREOL building to Garage C where the incident occurred, the affidavit said.
Video also captured Zaman
entering the CREOL building earlier in the day. Another man used his key fob to get into the building; Zaman followed him inside.
Police interviewed the man with the key fob and he gave them Zaman’s name, the affidavit said. Four of the five victims identified Zaman as the suspect.
In an interview with police, he admitted being in the parking deck waiting for his wife to pick him up, but denied touching the woman or any other victim. “She must be confused,” he said, according to the affidavit.
Zaman is a student working toward a doctorate degree in electrical engineering, police said. A spokeswoman said police will notify the Office of Student conduct about the arrest. The results of those investigations are protected from release by federal privacy laws, she said.
He was taken to the Orange County Jail on a $2,000 bond.