Another armed robbery reported near Duke Gardens

Another armed robbery occurred near Duke Gardens on Thursday, the second incident to happen there within ten days.

A Duke Alert notified the student body and Duke community of the incident, which occurred at 12:55 p.m. Thursday near the Lewis Street entrance to the gardens. 

The victim, an undergraduate student, was not injured, but had items stolen, Duke Police Chief John Dailey said.

One of two suspects is described as having a medium complexion and a medium build, about 5’11” tall and 17 to 20 years old. He was wearing black pants and a black shirt at the time of the robbery and carried a knife. The other suspect had a dark complexion, a thin build and was about 5’8” tall and between 17 and 20 years old. He was also wearing black pants and a black shirt as well as carrying a silver handgun. 

Dailey noted that a connection has not been found between this robbery and the similar one that occurred in Duke Gardens on July 15. The two robberies both happened in daylight and in the same location.

“The campus is safe. It is unusual for us to have this many robberies on campus, much less during the daytime,” he said. “I know it is concerning.”

Dailey said that security on campus has been increased to parallel the increase of armed incidents. The area that the robbery happened in, he said, was being patrolled on July 15, and over the past week a number of additional police officers had been added to the patrol area.

“We had police there very quickly after it occurred, Durham Police was there very quickly,” Dailey said. “Unfortunately, Duke is a big place.”

The number of police officers patrolling on campus does not change from the school year to the summer sessions, Dailey said, adding that he has had staff on overtime and will continue that into the fall.

Some of these police officers are obvious to passersby and others are more concealed, he noted.

Duke Police sent a mass email to the Duke Community in response to concern showed after the repeated armed robberies on and near campus over the summer. The email outlined steps that are being taken to increase security measures and safety on campus. These include additional police presence on East Campus, the Al Buehler Trail and in Duke Gardens--where the recent incidents took place--new automatic locks and fencing on Central Campus, LED lightbulbs on East Campus and a reduction of shrubbery on Central Campus.

The email, signed by Dailey and Vice President for Administration Kyle Cavanaugh, also makes note that the recent string of incidents is "highly unusual" for the University.

Duke Police has released sketches of the two suspects from the July 15 incident, after working with the Wake County Sheriff’s Office to develop them.

This article was updated at 1:06 p.m. Saturday to include new information.