Shortly before 1 am, Public Safety received a call from a visitor on campus, in B Lot, reporting that he had just been robbed by a man with a gun. Hartford PD was called to the scene, unfortunately the suspect fled. “Basically he reported that a person approached him, that he thought had a gun in his hand” says Mike Czerepuszko, Associate Director of Public Safety. “He took his wallet, cell phone and eye glasses.” According to the victim’s description, the suspect is described as a late 20’s black male roughly 5 feet 8 inches tall with a muscular build and short black hair.

The suspect ran from the scene towards C and D Lot. After the incident, questions arose why the new emergency text messaging service wasn’t put into use, with the suspect on the loose. According to Czerepuszko, the decision was made not to send text messages out because public safety “didn’t believe it was a threat to the university community.”

After this incident, students are questioning why public safety can’t better prevent people from coming on campus who don’t belong here, like possibly posting an officer at the main gate checking people who are trying to enter campus. “You really can’t,” says Czerepuszko, “unless you stop every single vehicle and identify each person, which on a Friday, Saturday night is pretty difficult to do with the amount of traffic”

If you have any information you are asked to call the public safety anonymous tip line at 7827