In this file photo, two UConn Police vehicles are pictured. Officer Rachael Levy of the UConn Police Department arrested four men during an attempted break-in at depot campus on Halloween night. (File Photo/The Daily Campus)
Four men were arrested at UConn’s Depot Campus on Halloween after attempting to break into an abandoned psychiatric hospital, according to a police report.
The men, identified as Enrique Mata, 22, Aaron Quinn Healy, 21, Joseph Williams, 22, and Patrick Kelly, 22, attempted to break into Knight Hospital on the evening of Oct. 31, the report said.
Police noticed an “unauthorized vehicle,” later identified as belonging to Kelly, on a service road near the hospital.
“A check of Kelly’s vehicle revealed bolt cutters and a tool kit,” officer Rachael Levy wrote in the report. “(A) search revealed that the group had cut a portion of the chain link fence around the building.”
The group told police they had entered the building unlawfully and were arrested at the scene just after 10 p.m.
Knight Hospital, also known as the Mansfield Training School, existed to “provide for the care, custody, education and employment of mental defective (feeble minded) and epileptic persons,” according to the Connecticut State Library website. It was closed in 1993 and several buildings of the hospital remain abandoned, the Connecticut State Library said.
Mata, Williams and Kelly were all charged on three counts: second-degree criminal trespassing, attempt to commit possession of burglar’s tools and attempt to commit second-degree criminal mischief. Healy was charged with second-degree criminal trespassing, possession of burglar’s tools and second-degree criminal mischief and an additional count of sixth-degree larceny by receiving stolen property.
Bail was set at $1,000 for each of the four men. The group appeared in court on Nov. 10 and now await disposition on Jan. 13, 2016 at 10 a.m.
The UConn Police Department could not be reached for comment.
Senior staff writer Kyle Constable contributed reporting.
Jon Hull is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at jonathan.hull@uconn.edu.