On Thursday, Jan 26, between5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m., an unidentified student was held at gunpoint and robbedin Ollie B. Moore male dormitory.
During the robbery, the victimwas allegedly hand cuffed and robbed of various items including cash and a cellphone.
According to Robert Bennett, SUdean of Student Life, the victim could identify the suspects from seeing themon campus earlier that day, but it’s still unknown if they are students at theuniversity.
“We want to remind the studentsto find out who is on the other side of the door before you open it, ” saidDale Flowers, Southern University chief of police. “Don’t open your doors tostrangers.”
This is the second robberyinvolving cash and a cell phone to occur in a dormitory within two months.
The four suspects involved inthe December 2004 robbery in Jones male dormitory were recently apprehendedafter several weeks of searching.
The back-to-back occurrence ofcrime activity has some students feeling uneasy about campus living.
“I don’t feel safe in my roombecause these flashlight cops are worrying about what girls are running intothe guys’ rooms instead of watching out for our safety,” said Calvin Mitchell,a sophomore theater major from Hammond and Moore dormitory resident.
Although there are residenthalls in both the front and back of campus, most campus robberies and othercrimes continue to occur in the back of the campus.
“Being a resident of Bethune Hall,a dormitory located in the front of campus, I believe I’m safer up here than inthe back of campus because there’s a lot less people, less traffic and not asmuch soliciting in this area,” said Dionne Allen, a junior from LaPlacemajoring in psychology.
Flowers, SU Chancellor EdwardJackson, Bennett and other university officials met yesterday to discuss somepossible solutions to the problems.
“We have a safe campus but thereare certain things that the students do to attract other criminal activity,”Bennett said.
He encourages students to notifyhim or Flowers if they notice any suspicious activity.
“You don’t have to leave yourname or anything,” Bennett said.
Bennett can be reached at771-5980 and Flowers can be reached at 771-2770.
