On Feb. 23 at 3:00 a.m., Public Safety officers responded to a call from a student about two men at the Blanchard bus stop who were trying to get her to approach them.
“The student called our Dispatch Center around 3:00 a.m. reporting two men were following her down Lower Lake Road,” said Sergeant Josh Dufresne, who responded to the call with Sergeant Jeffrey Wojcik and Senior Officer Frank Rogala. “The dispatcher kept her on the phone until she could safely make it inside her dorm. When officers arrived on scene, one subject was observed near the Blanchard bus stop, standing in the roadway, and the other was walking towards the bus stop from Pratt hall.”
Once Public Safety ran a records check they were able to identify the two men, said Interim Public Safety Director Barbara Arrighi in her e-mail to the community.
The officers were able to identify one of the two men as Northampton resident Hector Diaz, 49. Diaz is 5’6,” 145-160 lbs with black hair and brown eyes. He had an outstanding warrant for his arrest out of the city of Holyoke for failing to register as a Level 3 sex offender after being convicted of rape on April 4, 1990.
In order to be considered a Level 3 sex offender, an individual must “have a high risk to re-offend” and “the degree of dangerousness posed to the public is such that a substantial public safety interest is served by active community notification,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice website.
The other man, age 42, 5’4,” 130 lbs, with black hair and brown eyes, was not publicly identified because he was not arrested and had no charges against him, said Arrighi. Dufresne said that there was no struggle in taking the two men into custody and that he and Wojcik were on the scene within moments of the student’s phone call.
“If we have reasonable suspicion that you have committed [or are about to commit] a crime, we will ask for identification and run a records check. At the end of the day, our ultimate goal is to determine that the person does not pose a threat to the campus community, and if a crime has been committed, we will have a positive identification to hold them responsible,” said Dufresne.
“The department is alert and aware that people have trespassed and [Public Safety officers] are on patrol 24/7,” said Arrighi. Dufresne stated that “the professional men and women of the Public Safety department work diligently day and night to assure the safety and security of the campus community.”
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