Updated: UVA student faces weapons, hate crime charges in incident at former frat house

A 20-year-old UVA student has been charged with weapons and hate crime charges in an incident involving a fellow student.

Robert Cabell Romer, 20, of Charlottesville, reportedly brandished a firearm at the victim, a fellow resident of a former fraternity house on Rugby Road, on Thursday, according to Charlottesville Police.

The victim told officers that Romer had initiated several past incidents, including alleged threatening messages and assault.

Romer has been charged with:

• 18.2-57:  Assault and batter because of such person’s race, religious conviction, gender, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, color or ethnic or national origin with such battery having resulted in bodily injury.
• 18.2-121:  Enter the property of another for the purpose of damaging it or the contents thereof, or for the purpose of interfering with the rights of the owner, user, or occupant thereof to use such property free from interference.
• 18.2-60:  Knowingly communicate in a writing a threat to kill or do bodily injury to another which placed such person in reasonable apprehension of death or bodily injury.
• 18.2-282:  Point, hold, or brandish a firearm in such a manner so as to reasonably induce fear in the mind of another, or to hold a firearm in such a manner as to reasonably induce fear in the mind of another of being shot or injured.

Initial confusion over the 513 Rugby Road location

The initial report from the Charlottesville PD referred to the location as a fraternity house. An update to the PD report on the city website now notes that the fraternity that had been associated with the house is no longer active, and that the defendant and the victim are not associated with the fraternity.

Digging into that part of the story, the 513 Rugby Road location had been home to the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, which had its Fraternal Organization Agreement with the University of Virginia terminated in April after an investigation concluded that the fraternity had engaged in hazing of pledges, including frat members putting hot sauce on the genitals of pledges, forcing pledges to eat unknown substances that caused them to vomit, and forcing pledges to engage in activities that led to physical injuries.

The termination order bars Pi Kappa Alpha from reorganizing a UVA chapter until the 2028-2029 academic year, and is contingent upon upon the fraternity ceasing all operations, including any acts that may be construed as the operation of an “underground” organization.

Investigation into Oct. 30 incident continues

At this time, detectives from both Charlottesville Police Department and University of Virginia Police Department are in communication in the ongoing investigation.

If you have any information related to this incident, call the Crime Stoppers Tip Line at (434) 977-4000.