Since the University is obligated by law1 to send an email about every robbery that happens near2 the towers, another crime alert graced our inboxes today:
On Friday, February 5 at approximately 12:30 a.m., a 19-year-old male who is not affiliated with the University of Minnesota was the victim of a robbery. The robbery occurred off-campus, but very close to the University’s West Bank campus.
The victim was near the intersection of Cedar Avenue South and Third Street South when five males exited a dark colored SUV and approached him. One of the suspects implied he had a gun, and the suspects threatened the victim and demanded valuables. After the victim handed over his wallet and cell phone, the suspects got back into the SUV and fled southbound on Cedar Avenue. The victim was not injured and was able to confirm that the SUV had a Minnesota license plate; however, he was not able to obtain the plate’s characters.
The five suspects are all described as black males between the ages of 18 and 21 who reportedly spoke with Somali accents. It should be noted that the suspect descriptions do not match the descriptions of the suspects involved in the robberies and shooting on and near campus on January 25.
As alluded to in the crime alert, other campus amusements include botched crime sprees with random shootings, biking gropers, shooting threats, riots, and of course, ominous young black men in dark clothes!
1 “This Crime Alert is sent in compliance with the federal Clery Act which requires universities to alert the campus community of crimes that may pose an ongoing threat to students and employees. For updates on any developments in this case, please visit the Crime Alerts page on the UMPD website.”
2 To be fair, this is even closer to the law school than it is to Riverside Plaza.