Pedro Bravo arrested as the search continues for missing UF student from Miami

An arrest has been made in connection with the search for a missing Miami man who attends the University of Florida in Gainsville.

Pedro Bravo, 18, who Gainesville Police previously identified as a person of interest in the disappearance of Christian Aguilar, 18, is accused of denying a crime victim medical care and was being held on $100,000 bond, according to the Alachua County Sheriff's Office.

Aguilar was last seen about 6 p.m. Thursday in a parking lot along U.S. 441 a few miles from downtown Gainesville, according to a Gainesville Police Department news release.

Aguilar's father, Carlos Aguilar, was seen on South Florida television news reports, machete in hand, searching for his son in a wooded area.

The father told WSVN-Ch. 7 that he hopes to find his son and that "he's going to be beat up, but OK."

"It's heartbreaking that this would happen to someone who is so good," Erika Friman, Aguilar's girlfriend, told the student-run newspaper The Independent Florida Alligator.

The missing man has a history of depression, Gainesville police said.

Before the college freshman disappeared, Aguilar had a confrontation with Bravo. Bravo told police he left Aguilar in a parking lot.

After telling police he wanted to harm himself, Bravo was held for examination under Florida's Baker Act on Friday, police said.

Aguilar is 5 feet 3 inches tall with a medium build and was wearing a blue/gray hooded sweat shirt and light blue or gray jeans.

The teen is a 2012 graduate of the Doral Academy in Miami, where his brother Alex Aguilar is a junior.

"He was a stellar student," Principal Douglas Rodriguez said of the missing man who spent his middle and high school years at the academy. "He was very, very motivated, at the top of his class in terms of GPA, and was in dual enrollment."

Aguilar completed college freshman-level courses in math and science during his senior year, Rodriguez said, and studied biomedical engineering.

Students at the academy have raised $2,000 to pay for the Aguilar family's expenses while they stay in Gainesville during the search.

Some of the academy's students are upset, Rodriguez said, and have received counseling.

"We're very hopeful there will be a positive outcome," Rodriguez said.

In February 1989, another UF student with South Florida ties, 20-year-old Tiffany Sessions, disappeared while walking near campus. If she is still alive, Sessions would be 43.

Her father, real estate developer Patrick Sessions, launched a national awareness campaign about his daughter and became an activist for missing children and their families.

Staff reporter Wayne K. Roustan contributed to this story.