The Department of Public Safety posted a crime alert yesterday for the second armed robbery on campus this semester, which occurred on North Campus late Sunday night.
- Paul Wong
- PATRICK JONES/Daily
LSA sophomore Stephen Crafton and Art and Design freshman Michelle Schuster walk on a path along Murfin Avenue on North Campus yesterday afternoon. A student was robbed on a path like this the night before.
A male student, whose name could not be released, was walking along a path alongside the woods right near the south side of Bursley Residence Hall when two men approached him at around 11:30 p.m. One of the men, bearing a black handgun, demanded his belongings and then ran off. DPS Sgt. Stacy Richmond could not say what items of the student’s were taken.
The suspects were described as two black males, one 6 feet tall and the other 5-foot-8. They were both said to have been wearing black clothing.
Richmond said officers responded to the scene and began an investigation. Although a police tracking dog was unable to pick up on the scent of the suspects, officers were able to collect some evidence.
“We are currently investigating those leads,” Richmond said, adding that he did not know if the suspects could be connected to other recent, unsolved campus crimes. “If we do catch them, we’re going to explore that as well,” he said.
Richmond said two officers are assigned to do foot and car patrols on North Campus. They drive around looking for any suspicious activity and respond to calls from the dispatcher for any incidents in the area. He said since the incident, the number of officers patrolling North Campus has not increased.
“We always keep the same staffing levels and on occasion we beef something up depending if we have problems in the particular area,” Richmond said. “As for now, nothing has been beefed up in that area.”
In September, DPS posted a crime alert for a suspected armed robbery in the Church Street Parking Structure. At the time, a black man around 6-foot-5 and between 18 and 23 years old approached a man and asked him for his money. The suspect then fled from the scene.
In October, two black males and one white male assaulted a Business junior outside his Church Street apartment. Although he suffered a broken nose, nothing was taken from him.
Two weeks later, three black males attacked an LSA junior on Hill Street, beat him up and stole his cell phone. After the men started calling the victim’s friends, two of the suspects were tricked into going to the corner of South State and Packard Streets. They were then arrested by Ann Arbor Police.
Richmond cautioned students to be more careful about where they walked and to tell friends of their whereabouts. But he said students should not be too worried over the incident.
“We do have a safe campus,” Richmond said.