A break-in incident labeled by police as an attempted burglary at the Eagle Heights apartment complex late Saturday night in fact involved an individual and suspects intended to harm him, according to a resident of the building.

Around 1 a.m. Sunday morning, a group of three people dressed in “black paramilitary outfits” with the “World War II German Swastika flag” on their arms, woke the graduate student and her fiancé by kicking the door with their feet, according to the student’s fiancé. The group was kicking doors of other units too, she said.

Thinking they may be alerting residents of an emergency, she said her fiancé went to the peephole of the apartment and noticed the group was trying to draw people out of their apartments.

Not leaving her apartment, the student called 911, and two other apartment residents also called the police.

University of Wisconsin Police said the attempted break-in was directed at a specific resident, according to the student. She said the group had visited him previously, but did not remember his apartment number and also attempted to break in the windows of the specific resident.

“[The specific resident] is not a minority, so this was not a hate crime,” she said in an interview.

According to police reports, the subjects fled prior to police arrival, but police stopped them in a car a short distance away and found two additional people in the car.

A search subsequent to the arrest of the five individuals found one subject armed with a straight razor. A large knife and brass knuckles were also found in the car.

Tentatively, the female driver of the car and a male passenger are being charged with party to a crime. The three male subjects tentatively charged with attempted burglary while armed, disorderly conduct while armed and carrying a concealed weapon are currently in Dane County Jail.

The five arrested range in age from 17 to 26 years old and none appear to have any UW affiliation, according to police.

The student said the group was able to gain access to the apartment because only the individual apartments have locks, while the main doors are not locked.

University Student Apartments, however, does not intend to change its security policy as a result of the incident, according to one of the complex’s managers.

“The community is clear they don’t want a situation where people would have difficulty coming and going,” said Jan Sternbach, manager of community services for University Apartments.

Sternbach said that while University Apartments’ priority is for the residents to feel safe and comfortable, Eagle Heights is an apartment complex with a different security system than a residence hall.

“The real risk is much bigger than a locked door to the outside. People park their cars and walk to the complex,” Sternbach said, adding that residents are potentially unsafe even when they are not in their apartment.

“If in fact the community would request [an upgrade in security] as a whole, then that would be an option.” Sternbach said.