Moving west on Warner Street toward the house, the suspect and Bramel walked passed Sauer Avenue on their left. At the corner of Sauer Avenue and Parker Street, Bramel said there were four to five Cincinnati Police Department cars arresting a person for vandalism of property — graffiti.

The suspect told Bramel that he had just been released from jail and was at ‘low’ point. The suspect also admitted to taking drugs prior to the confrontation. Bramel said the suspect told him that he was ‘cracked out and out of his mind.’

“What are you talking about it’s nothing personal? You have a gun to my head.”

“He told me, ‘This is just the way the world is. It’s nothing personal,’ ” Bramel said.

While they walked, Bramel said the suspect tried to justify his unjust actions.

“I just walked normal, and I was just complying,” Bramel said. “I played it cool.”

Bramel said he and the suspect passed a couple entering an apartment on Ohio Avenue. The suspect told Bramel to not attract attention or else he would kill him in front of the people.

The suspect walked closely to Bramel’s side with the gun pointed at his back. The suspect and Bramel walked northbound on Ohio Avenue and turned left onto Warner Street.

Six residents live in the house. Four of them, including Bramel, were in the home at the time of the robbery. Two of the residents attend UC fulltime and one resident attends part time.

After Bramel insisted that he had no money on his person, the suspect asked Bramel where he was going. Bramel told the suspect that he was walking to his house located a couple of blocks away. The suspect hit Bramel on his shoulder blade with the gun and ordered Bramel to take him to his house.

“He told me, ‘You better have some money or I’m going to kill you. If you make a noise, I’m going to kill you,’ ” Bramel remembered.

The armed suspect continued to threaten Bramel — who did not have a phone on his person.

“Soon as I get out of the car, he was right there with a gun and said, ‘Give me all your money or I’m going to kill you,’ ” Bramel said.

After not being able to find a parking spot on Warner Street, Bramel parked his car on the south end of Ohio Avenue and to the west of Bellevue Hill Park. He was about a seven to eight minute walk away from his house, Bramel said.

Around 3:15 a.m., Billy Bramel, 23, drove to the Stop’n Go on West McMillan Street — which he referred to as the ‘Stab’n Grab — to buy a VitaminWater for his girlfriend, Hanah Mack, 23, who he had just dropped off at the house.

A University of Cincinnati student and his roommates were victims of a robbery early Friday morning at their house on 174 Warner St. after an armed suspect approached the student walking home from his car parked blocks away.

Once the suspect and Bramel arrived at the house, the suspect hit Bramel a second time in his spine with the butt of the gun.

Bramel said the door was locked and he did not have a key.

“He said, ‘You better get this door open or I’m going to kill you right here, right now,’ ” Bramel said. “He kept saying, ‘I’m a professional. Just do what I say. I’m a professional. You think I’m playin’? I’ve done this like 13 times. You think I’m playin’ with you right now? I will kill you right now.’ ”

The suspect then threw a beer can at Bramel’s bedroom window to attract his girlfriend Mack’s attention. The suspect told Bramel to act normal and pretend he was a friend that needed to come inside.

“He had me pulled up real close to him and had the gun right in my upper back between my shoulder blades and said, ‘If you even hint to her, I’ll kill you, and I’ll take off running and they’ll never find me,’ ” Bramel said.

Mack unlocked the door and Bramel said the suspect instantly pointed the gun at Mack and pushed her toward the stairs, ordering them both to walk upstairs while announcing it was a robbery.

Bramel said the suspect entered his and Mack’s room and waved the gun around, ordering Bramel to pack his valuable electronics into bags— DVDs, laptop, cable box, iPod, iPhone and a 42-inch TV. The bags used to pack the property belonged to the residents.

The suspect then asked for money and Bramel denied having money. Bramel said the suspect took $260 from Mack’s purse — this month’s rent money.

While Bramel packed the bags, the suspect sexually assaulted Mack, Bramel said.

“He put his fingers inside of her. I watched him with his hand down her pants, and she told me that he put his fingers inside of her,” Bramel said. “That pierced right through my heart. That was the worst part of the whole thing. That was worse than having a gun held to my head.”

Once everything was bagged up, the suspect demanded to enter the room across the hall, where Joey Langenbrunner, 22, a fifth-year electronic media major, was trying to go to sleep in his bed.

After forcing Bramel to kneel on the ground with his head on the floor, Bramel said the suspect pistol-whipped him in the back of his head, causing him to bleed.

The suspect ordered Mack to open the bedroom door, which was locked, Bramel said. Langenbrunner said he was cranky and annoyed that Mack was knocking on his door as he was trying to fall asleep.

Langenbrunner said he got out of his bed when he heard Bramel say that he was bleeding. Langenbrunner then heard a huge crash on the door.

“I heard him say, ‘If you don’t open up the door, I’m going to kill both of you,’ ” Langenbrunner said. “That’s when my heart sunk.”

Langenbrunner said he opened the door because he did not want his roommates to die. The suspect entered the room, turned on the light and ordered the three roommates to get down on their hands and knees.

“I thought he was going to hurt Billy, because he picked on him the whole time,” Langenbrunner said. “I just kept quiet the whole time.”

The suspect forced Bramel to pack Langenbrunner’s belongings into bags, including an Xbox 360, Xbox games, a Wii, cables, headphones, laptop, wallet and a 32-inch TV. Langenbrunner said he gave the suspect $250 — this month’s rent money.

Bramel and Langenbrunner said the suspect sexually assaulted Mack a second time in Langenbrunner’s room and grabbed Mack’s butt.

“That’s when I got scared,” Langenbrunner said. “Especially when he said, ‘We’re going to see how much you love him.’ ”

Bramel thinks the suspect would have sexually assaulted Mack to a greater degree if he were given the opportunity.

Bramel said Mack kept very calm and did not cry.

While this was occurring on the second floor, Michaela Beekman, 19, was in her room directly above Bramel and Mack’s room playing her keyboard. Beekman said she arrived home from work about 10 minutes prior to the suspect and Bramel’s arrival.

“I heard doors slamming downstairs. I thought people were coming in and out of the house or someone was pissed off or something,” Beekman said. “I didn’t hear anything anyone was saying.”

Beekman said her door was closed and locked.

Beekman learned of the robbery from a Facebook status that Langenbrunner posted at 4:49 a.m. after the incident concluded. She said she started to freak out, turned off her lights and hid in her closet, scared that someone might still be in the house. Beekman talked to Mack on the phone to comprehend what happened.

“I just felt horrible afterwards, because I heard that going on downstairs and didn’t know what was going on,” Beekman said. “He didn’t come upstairs, thank God. I’m extremely lucky.”

After Langenbrunner’s belongings were packed in bags, the suspect ordered the three residents to carry the bags and exit the house, Langenbrunner said. The suspect left Bramel’s and Mack’s bagged belongings in the house, only taking Langenbrunner’s possessions.

Bramel and Mack walked in front of the suspect, who held the gun against Mack’s back, Bramel said. Bramel carried two bags; Mack carried a bag and a TV stand, and Langenbrunner walked behind the suspect, carrying his 32-inch TV wrapped in a blanket.

The suspect ordered the roommates to walk eastward on Warner Street. Once they passed Sauer Avenue — where a CPD car was still located —he forced them to walk faster, Langenbrunner said. They turned right onto Ohio Avenue, walked southbound, and then turned left onto Conklin Street.

Bramel said they did not see anyone while walking with the suspect — except the four to five CPD cars on Sauer Avenue.

The suspect ordered Bramel — who was limping because of a recent stress fracture in his foot — to start running down Conklin Street’s steep grade. Langenbrunner said the suspect told him to start running too. Located at the end of Conklin Street is a guardrail. Behind the guardrail is a sloping wooded hill that leads to Vine Street.

While holding the gun to the back of Bramel’s head, Bramel said the suspect directed them to put the bags down, get on their hands and knees and put their faces in the dirt.

“I think he said, ‘Are you ready to die?’ I said no,” Bramel said.

Billy Bramel, 23, reenacts the scene on Conklin Street | The suspect forced the three victims to kneel in the dirt and count to 100 while he fled the scene with stolen property. Photo by Natalie Coleman.

Though Bramel felt dazed after being pistol-whipped in the head, Langenbrunner said they all remained calm and compliant.

The suspect instructed the three roommates to count to 100 while he ran away and threatened to shoot them if they moved, Bramel said. The suspect then carried the three bags and blanket-wrapped TV down the sloping wooded hill and cut a sharp right to stairs that lead to Vine Street.

“Once I got to ten, I picked my head and I booked it,” Bramel said.

Mack followed Bramel up Conklin Street. Langenbrunner said he waited about two and a half seconds to make sure the suspect was gone.

“I was scared he was going to shoot back,” Langenbrunner said. “I looked over the guardrail, I saw them going and then I started booking it.”

The three roommates retraced their path, running westward on Conklin Street, northbound on Ohio Avenue and westward on Warner Street. Bramel said he started screaming for help halfway down Warner Street and headed for the police located on Sauer Avenue.

Bramel reached CPD on Sauer Avenue first and said that a combination of shock, running, screaming and being hit in the head caused him to start puking, which he said startled CPD.

Bramel said there were about seven police officers, and they listened intently to his plead for help. About two minutes after Bramel told CPD what happened, the police left to look for the suspect.

The police returned to his house after about five minutes, and Bramel and his roommates talked with CPD for about an hour longer he said.

“They could have done better with their investigation,” Bramel said. “We feel the police could have done a better job and they’re not doing enough.”

The investigation, led by District 5 police Sgt. Mark Kelley, is ongoing.

Langenbrunner said the police left around 5 a.m. Friday. The CPD returned around 7:30 a.m. to fingerprint and take pictures, which Bramel said only lasted 15-20 minutes.

Around 7 p.m. Saturday, Langenbrunner’s iCloud pinpointed an exact location of his stolen MacBook: 2274 Vine St. Langenbrunner called CPD who told him to meet them at the location.

Langenbrunner and his father drove in separate cars to the location. CPD told Langenbrunner to call when he was 10 minutes from the location. When Langenbrunner called CPD, he was put on hold. Eight minutes later when CPD answered, Langenbrunner told them he and his father were two minutes from the position. When the two arrived to the location — an abandoned apartment building — CPD was not there. Langenbrunner said he then spent 40 minutes on the phone with CPD.

“We’re here, me and my dad. We’re ready to crack down this door, get my stuff and put this guy in jail,” Langenbrunner said.

Langenbrunner said CPD told him that an officer had already arrived at the location and decided it was secure. CPD said there was nothing they could do to enter the building, and they were not going to commit a crime in order to enter, according to Langenbrunner.

Langenbrunner said he and his father were extremely frustrated. Langenbrunner wanted to go inside the building, but was cautious because the suspect could still be armed.

“I was just really frustrated because they told us they would meet us there, and we just wanted to walk around the area and see if we could find a book bag or anything, any evidence.”

Langenbrunner said it only made sense that the suspect was in the abandoned building.

“My laptop was tracked there,” Langenbrunner said. “I just feel totally helpless.”

Langenbrunner said that he is not going to complain though, because he is thankful that he was not shot and is still alive.

“I don’t care about my laptop, I just want this guy to go to jail so that he doesn’t hurt anyone else,” Langenbrunner said.

Langenbrunner — who is planning to graduate in December — had four years worth of electronic media projects and a portfolio on his laptop.

“Life keeps going,” Langenbrunner said. “I’m striving to get the best grades, do my best at work and whatnot, and this is not going to stop me.”

Bramel and Langenbrunner said they do not feel safe living in their home. Langenbrunner is moving back to his parents’ house in Colerain Township about 25 minutes away so he can focus on graduating. Bramel said he is not planning on moving.

“The good outweighs the bad,” Bramel said. “The good in the neighborhood is the people around me that are my friends and actually care about me.”

Langenbrunner said it was sobering receiving the UC public safety email alert regarding the robbery of his house.

“I get those emails all the time and every single time I’m like, ‘That sucks,’ ” Langenbrunner said. “After awhile you just get so many you don’t feel anything, you just check them and delete them.”

The suspect was dressed in a teal-blue blazer over a white jersey, blue jeans and beat-up work boots, according to Bramel. The suspect is a 30- to 39-year-old black man about 5’11’’ with a ‘lanky-type average build,’ a narrow, oval-shaped face with a little scruff and nappy, unkempt hair that was about a half inch long, according to Bramel.

Cincinnati police could not be reached for comment over the weekend.

If you have any information regarding this robbery contact crime stoppers at 513-352-3041 or District five police at 513-569-8500.