Gainesville Police arrested a local man early Thursday morning after police said he robbed a UF student Tuesday. One suspect remains at large.
At about 7:35 p.m. Tuesday, Anthony Smalls, 23, helped another man threaten the student with a handgun near LynCourt Square Apartments, according to a police report.
The student, who wished to remain anonymous, said he was parking his scooter. The men followed him and asked for a lighter before one of them grabbed his shoulder and took out a handgun.
"I didn’t have much in the way of cash, so I was fumbling through my wallet, and he just decided to take my wallet and took my phone," he said.
Smalls used the phone within 30 minutes of escaping to contact several prostitutes. Police don’t know who held the gun, according to the report. Smalls went to meet a prostitute Thursday morning and was instead met by police.
"When I found out what he was using my phone for, I just thought that was really kind of pathetic," the student said.
The student said he is a 21-year-old UF marketing senior.
"I couldn’t believe that it happened to me," he said. "I didn’t think that it was a bad neighborhood."
Police charged Smalls with robbery with a firearm and took him to the Alachua County Jail where, as of press time, he remains in lieu of a $150,000 bond.
Contact Giuseppe Sabella at gsabella@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @Gsabella
