The Durham Police Department is investigating a number of armed robberies that occurred throughout the city over the weekend, two of which happened just blocks from East Campus.
Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, sent an e-mail Sunday morning alerting the Duke community that a student was robbed at gunpoint at the corner of Trinity Avenue and Buchanan Boulevard Saturday night, urging students to be vigilant.
Sgt. L.B. Evans of DPD also posted an alert Sunday afternoon to the Partners Against Crime Web site informing District 2 residents about several armed robberies, two of which took place Saturday. One robbery was on the 600 block of Watts Street and the other occurred on Woodrow Street, neither of which involved Duke students.
The student mentioned in Moneta's e-mail was walking home from the Shell gas station on Main Street around 9 p.m. when he noticed he was being followed by a sport utility vehicle about two blocks from his apartment in the Trinity Park neighborhood.
"[Two men] came up to me with a gun out-I must have been yelling for them not to hurt me or something because they were telling me to shut up," the student, who wished to remain unnamed, said in an interview. "I handed over my wallet and I had my backpack on, which had my iPod and MacBook in it. They asked me what was in it and I kept saying, 'It's just notes for class, I swear.' One of the guys punched me in the face and then I think they punched me again, on the shoulder.... They kicked me a couple times when I was down on the ground."
He then dialed 911 from a friend's apartment, and was contacted by Clay Adams, program coordinator of new student and family programs for the Dean of Students Office and the dean on call at the time, about the crime.
"I thought the e-mail to the student body, however, had a lot of important information omitted from it, like a description of the suspects and their car and the fact that there had been another robbery the night before in the same neighborhood," the student wrote in an e-mail. "I just don't understand why Student Affairs wouldn't try to educate the student body about stuff like this. Are they trying to create the perception that Durham is safer than it is by not alerting students of imminent risks? If so, that's a dangerous and deeply troubling strategy."
He said he had heard from a friend about a robbery that occurred Friday night near the James Joyce Irish Pub Restaurant. The student added that he thought it may not have been reported by Student Affairs because it was unclear whether the victim was a student.
"I wouldn't have walked home by myself if I had known that 24 hours before there had been an armed robbery," he said.
Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek said Student Affairs had been prepared to alert students of Friday's crime, but had no details for or confirmation of the incident.
"As of last night [DPD] said there was no report to confirm," she said, adding that a student did not necessarily have to be involved to warrant alerting the University. "Our policy is to make information available to students that is relevant and important for them."
Wasiolek said the Duke University Police Department stepped up patrol in the area to respond to heightened risk, but Moneta added that he did not think there was more crime in the area than usual.
"I don't believe we're seeing an unusual frequency of crime," Moneta wrote in an e-mail. "Often students are targeted at the start of a semester when [they're] just back and thought to be more vulnerable."
Three students reported being robbed at gunpoint in the Whole Foods Market parking lot across the street from East Campus over Fall Break. DUPD said at the time, however, that armed robberies so close to campus are rare.
DPD was unavailable for comment for this story.
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