A male graduate student was robbed at gunpoint near East yesterday evening but was not injured.
The student was robbed between 7 and 7:30 p.m. near Green and Sedgefield streets, an intersection a block away from East Campus, said Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta. The Durham Police Department responded to the scene first and was joined soon after by the Duke University Police Department.
The perpetrator seized the student’s backpack, which contained a laptop, said DUPD Chief John Dailey. He described the robber as a black male in his 20s wearing a dark hoodie and baggy jeans. DPD will lead the investigation, but DUPD will assist, Dailey noted.
Moneta notified the student body of the incident in an e-mail at 10:09 p.m. and advised students to “take all recommended precautions.”
“Right now, there are more patrols in the area by DPD and DUPD,” Dailey said in an interview at approximately 10:30 p.m. “We’re looking for people of this description. We will continue to search, and now that the e-mail has been sent to the students we’re hopeful that someone might have seen something around that time in the area and will provide that information to us for us to follow up with.”
When DPD arrived on the scene, police tried to track the robber with DPD’s K9 unit, Dailey said. He added that he is hopeful that the stolen electronic device can be tracked, a method that has been successful recently in instances in which cell phones and other electronics have been stolen.
Dailey noted that there have been relatively few robberies on or near East, which makes identifying and tracking crime trends difficult.
“These seem to be very random acts many months apart,” Dailey said.
A student was most recently held at gunpoint on East in October. A female was held up at approximately 2 a.m. Oct. 9 near Jarvis Dormitory, but she was able to flee before the perpetrator could take her belongings.
Deb LoBiondo, assistant dean for residence life, reached out to the student after the incident occurred, Moneta said.
“He was shaken up but pleased to have heard from us,” Moneta said. “His comment was that the Durham Police Department was as helpful as they could be. His comments were evidence of feeling supported but obviously shaken up by the experience.”
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