Ashley Traylor
Editor-in-Chief
atraylor@murraystate.edu
Murray State student Reyon Nathan Williams, 26, was arrested and charged with first-degree rape and second-degree unlawful imprisonment on Sept. 19.
The arrest came after a student reported being sexually assaulted in an on-campus residence, according to a Timely Warning sent by the Murray State Police Department. In the email, the rape was reported to have occurred in the early hours of Sept. 15.
After filing an Open Records Request, The News learned the assault took place at an apartment in College Courts, where Williams was living.
This was not Williams’ first encounter with Murray State Police. Williams was given a citation for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia in 2012, and he was also cited for the same thing at Hart Residential College in 2013.
The News reported in April 2014 that Williams was apprehended by Murray police in connection to an event where witnesses reported he may have had a “long gun” on campus. No shots were fired, and no one was injured. Campus was on lockdown.
Williams’ roommate at the time, Vincent Burns, said police stormed into their apartment at Campus Evolution Villages North and asked him if Williams’ owned a gun. Burns did not think he did.
“He seems like a nice guy, but he does have a little bit of a temper,” Vincent Burns, Williams’ roommate at the time. “But he usually just walked that off.”
Williams is a senior occupational health and safety major from Atlanta, Georgia.
This is the third reported rape on Murray State’s campus since the beginning of the academic school year. The first incident was reported on Aug. 15, according to Murray State’s Crime and Fire Log.
All three crimes took place on the residential side of campus and all of the assailants were known to the victim, according to the Crime and Fire Log.
Since the beginning of 2018, there have been five rapes and six sexual abuse cases reported to Murray State Police.
Williams is still in the Calloway County Jail on a $100,000 cash bond.