DC Man, 34, Charged After Flashing Four UMD Students Near Campus

A 34-year-old Washington, D.C. man is facing four counts of indecent exposure after University of Maryland police say he flashed himself to a group of UMD students near campus on Wednesday. Police identified the suspect as Andre Aaron Moore and took him into custody after locating him in the 4500 block of College Avenue in College Park.

According to WJLA, UMPD officers responded to the area of Norwich Road in College Park on Wednesday after receiving a report of a man who had just exposed himself. Police say all four victims are University of Maryland students, and the department reported that Moore exposed himself to the group before officers tracked him down a short distance away. He now faces four counts of indecent exposure, one for each alleged victim.

Old Town College Park's Campus Housing Corridor

Norwich Road and the 4500 block of College Avenue sit within Old Town College Park, a historic residential district that borders UMD's main campus and Fraternity Row and is packed with off-campus student rental housing, according to the Prince George's County Planning Department. That density of student housing helps explain why UMPD, rather than a municipal department, was the agency that responded and made the arrest, even though the location sits off the university's formal property line.

UMPD's jurisdiction in neighborhoods like Old Town College Park stems from Section 13-601 of the Education Article of the Maryland Code, which gives campus police departments authority over university property along with mutual aid agreements that extend concurrent police powers into surrounding off-campus areas, per the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. Those agreements routinely allow UMPD to coordinate off-campus safety responses alongside Prince George's County Police.

What Moore Could Face Under Maryland Law

Under Maryland Criminal Law Code § 11-107, indecent exposure is a misdemeanor punishable by up to three years in prison, a $1,000 fine, or both for each count, according to the Maryland General Assembly. Because Moore faces four separate counts, that statutory maximum could theoretically apply four times over, though prosecutors are not required to prove he intended to alarm anyone or seek sexual gratification in order to secure a conviction.

Maryland's evidentiary standard for the charge is fairly straightforward: prosecutors must show a person purposely exposed private parts in a public place where at least one person was present to witness it, per attorney Drew Cochran. Public streets and residential blocks in student neighborhoods like Old Town College Park legally satisfy that public-place requirement. The statute also carries steeper penalties, up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines, when the exposure involves prurient intent in the presence of a minor, though nothing in the case against Moore has been described as involving a minor.

A Recurring Concern Near Campus

This is not the first time UMPD has pursued a multi-count exposure case near student housing. In February 2024, campus police investigated a similar incident in which a suspect exposed himself near a residence hall before being tracked down with help from security camera monitoring, according to The MoCo Show. The pattern reflects a broader trend documented by The Diamondback, which reported that UMPD recorded 17 indecent exposure incidents in College Park in 2022, a decade-high figure that more than doubled the seven incidents logged the prior year, with officials at the time attributing part of the jump to increased community reporting.

That spike drew attention beyond campus. State legislative testimony described in Baltimore Fishbowl noted that reported indecent exposure cases targeting UMD students nearly doubled between 2021 and 2022, prompting lawmakers to weigh stiffer statutory penalties for public exposure offenses, particularly those involving minors. UMPD's own safety framework leans on tools like the UMD Guardian mobile safety app, emergency blue-light phones, ShotSpotter technology, and automated license plate readers to help monitor off-campus student areas, according to the department's annual security report.

It remains unclear whether Moore has any prior criminal history in D.C. or Maryland, and bond or pretrial release conditions in Prince George's County District Court had not been detailed as of Wednesday. UMPD has not said whether investigators are examining possible ties between Moore and any other unreported exposure incidents in the area.