A man who allegedly tried to rob a UW-Madison student on campus Sunday afternoon was arrested later that same day after surveillance footage was used to identify him.
According to the incident report published by the UW-Madison Police Department website, the attempted robbery took place at about 3:40 p.m. in a restroom in the Computer Sciences Building. The suspect was armed with a knife and demanded money from the victim.
Campus Police sent out a WiscAlert informing people on campus to avoid the area after responding to a 911 call made by the victim.
Police used surveillance footage from the building to determine the identity of the suspect, Momodou Jammeh, 19, from Madison.
One officer recognized the man in the video from a traffic stop that had occurred on Saturday night. Jammeh had been stopped due to not having a license plate on his vehicle.
“It just so happened that the officer from the traffic stop was the same one at the scene on Sunday,” said Marc Lovicott of the UW-Madison Police Department.
The suspect was apprehended and taken into custody at about 10:30 p.m. on Sunday without incident. He was tentatively charged with armed robbery and second-degree recklessly endangering safety.
According to Lovicott, a second WiscAlert was sent after police confirmed there was no longer a threat to the area.
“The cameras that we used were exterior cameras, and we saw him leaving the building and driving away from the scene. That’s when we sent out the all-clear when the threat no longer existed,” Lovicott said.
