An arrest has been made after a student was sexually assaulted on the campus of UCLA early Friday.
Several sources close to the investigation tell the NBC News Investigative Unit that the person in custody is a transient.
There was increased security on UCLA’s campus Friday night, with patrol cars sitting outside of the dorms.
Students were on edge knowing that a man entered a dorm room in the middle of the night and sexually assaulted a girl.
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“A lot of bruins are upset at the university, like, they say they're here to protect us, but where's the protection?” Chantal de la Cruz, who lives in the UCLA dorms said.
De la Cruz has lived in the Saxon Suites dorms for a year. She woke up Friday morning to find out that a fellow student had been sexually assaulted in the middle of the night.
“Other students are putting in like our group forums, you know, what's happening and to stay safe, look out for each other,” De la Cruz said.
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According to a UCLA crime alert, a man entered the student's dorm room around 2:40 a.m. and sexually assaulted her. They later identified that individual as 41-year-old Jeffrey Brewer, who is now facing charges that include burglary, forcible sexual penetration, false imprisonment and assault with intent to commit a felony.
“It’s awful, it’s scary, like, what I just heard was that someone got in someone's window and then just whatever, but it's terrible that that sort of thing can happen at a school,” Sophie Waldie, who lives in the UCLA dorms said.
Police said they don’t know how the man got in, but students tell me the dorms don’t have air conditioning so almost everyone leaves windows open at night.
“If you walk around you’ll see that now a lot of students have closed their windows,” De la Cruz said.
Campus police are asking students to be alert, lock doors and windows, and report any suspicious activity.
Student Harry Gallo said so many people are on edge, even he got reported to police this morning.
“I was walking around over there near my dorm, and I was looking in the window of my dorm room and just pondering something that's going on back home and I actually had the police called on me because people thought I might be trying to burglarize my own dorm,” Gallo said.
Some students are calling out the university, saying they haven’t felt safe on campus for several months now.
“Honestly, I'm really ashamed of the university because over the last quarter with the whole police situation and the encampment and now this,” De la Cruz said.
There are currently a lot of high school and international students staying there for summer programs, and some said they didn’t hear about the assault and never received an alert.
Anyone with information regarding the assault is asked to contact UCLA police.
