Gibbs Hall vandalized

Around 4 a.m. Thursday morning, intruders vandalized three floors of Gibbs Hall.

The vandals littered the male dormitory with food products and feminine products on the floors, walls and doors.

The FAMU Police Department was called to the scene at 4:34 a.m.by a housing clerk, said Lt. Louis Wichers. The housing clerk observed a group of people leaving the dormitory and afterwards saw the damages.

An unnamed Gibbs Resident Assistant said he saw girls inside the dorm by a side door while he was making his rounds. He said that when he asked what they were doing, they ran. He later saw more girls running downstairs.

When FAMU PD arrived, the dormitory was not evacuated because none of the inhabitants were in danger, Wichers said.

FAMU PD caught the intruders shortly after the incident and will be disciplined by the University.

Wichers said FAMU PD easily identified the people involved because “not too many people are moving around at that time in the morning.”

Interim Housing Director Oscar Crumity said, “Seven ladies, believed to be FAMU students who resided in Wheatley and Cropper (two female dormitories),” were caught.

University officials will await further police investigation to see what direction to take involving the culprits, Crumity said.

The dormitory cleanup has begun by the Housing Department, but Crumity said in some areas the chemicals used are not working and some tiles may need to be replaced.

“It is quite nasty,” Crumity said.

Jonathan Meeks, 18, is a Gibbs Hall resident. When he observed the hallways, he said he saw “ketchup, mustard, milk, coffee, bloody tampons and brown sugar” on the floor.

“My initial reaction was that we got panty raided by the girls,” said Meeks, a first-year political science student from Atlanta.

A similar act of vandalism occurred in the female dormitories of Truth and Cropper on February 18.

A group of male intruders defaced the dormitory floors with blue paint early in the morning.

The incident in the female dormitories increased dorm security and led to a FAMU Police Department investigation

The University’s Housing Department implemented a new dorm security system this semester, which involves the use of entrance cards by inhabitants.

Although the Housing Department has taken many actions to increase dorm security, the intruders were still able to enter Gibbs Hall Thursday morning.

“It showed we should have better security because they hit the fourth, fifth and sixth floors. To do all three floors they needed a lot of time,” Meeks said.

Meeks believes the vandalism was childish because “it was four in the morning and people should have been sleep.”

He said he hopes the males (who live in Gibbs) will “be more mature and not retaliate against the girls by trashing their dorms.”

“It’s not worth the trouble, especially since it’s the end of the school year,” Meeks said.

Alex Acosta contributed to this article.