For the third time in less than one week, a student was threatened at gunpoint.
At about 8:45 p.m. Thursday, in the parking lot across from Bayou Oaks Apartments, an unnamed student was held up at gunpoint, according to the UH Department of Public Safety. The victim claimed to not be carrying any valuables on him at the time, but was physically assaulted by the suspect after the victim attempted to disarm him.
According to the safety alert, the victim described the suspect as a skinny, tall, African-American male with short black hair and no facial hair. He placed the man to be between 18- and 22-years-old.
After the assault, the suspect drove off west on North MacGregor Way in what is reported to be a black four-door sedan.
The previous two aggravated assaults occurred Sunday and Wednesday. No suspects have been identified in either case.
news@thedailycougar.com
This needs to stop. I have always held my head high when walking at night at UH and always laughed at those who said it was unsafe to walk at night because of the area. Why? Because I know that the campus in reality is safe. I don’t expect a 100% crime free zone, because crime happens everywhere and we at UH just like to emphasize it more and say “Oh its not safe” while then proclaiming ut to be the best place ever, when crime happens all the time on their campus. I just want more police patrolling the campus at night but it seems like during they day we have 20 cop cars patrolling and at night just a couple and they are usually in park near the garages. I will be bringing my gun to school from now on and am not afraid to use it if needed. Time to take our campus back.
I just love the fact that the security and the police have plenty of time to knock on the doors in bayou and patrol the students in the dormatories but cant seem to keep the perimeter of the school safe for the students. I think it is time to reevaluate our priorities and focus more on the threats coming onto campus than the students that are already here.
The first two happened during the day, the recent one being the first to happen after sunset. Just to be clear.
What is going on on campus?! Isnt HPD looking into this?! 3 crimes in one week?! Most of the students are way too young to handle these situations. Aside from the fact that their lives are on the line ..apparently at gunpoint. Please UH, i hope you have taken strict actions and precautions already!
This is ridiculous. What is our administration doing to address this?
More security needs to be applied. Security cameras, new quick response teams on and around campus and hire more security/campus police if needed. There has to be a solution.
As mentioned above, crime is everywhere, but 3 assaults in a week? The criminals have found UH to be a soft target and won’t stop until proven other wise.
Time to step up Dr. Khator.
Students are very easy targets. They have high tech gadgets, they’re all concentrated neatly in a few key locations, with direct road access and lots of hiding places.
And, if the students are law-abiding, they’re UNARMED.
What more can a street thug ask for? It’s like Christmas.
When it comes to ticketing cars parked in the wrong lot, oh, UH never misses a beat. But somehow students are being robbed in broad daylight right under their nose in these same parking lots.
Silly me, I forgot UH only cares about things that line their pockets.
What is happening at this campus is absolutely disgraceful. They raise our tuition to build an unneeded new football stadium, but will probably claim they can’t afford to hire more police officers.
This school’s disregard for its students is absolutely sickening. I’ve tried to like UH since I first got here 3 yrs ago, but with each passing yr, they make it harder and harder. When I walk the stage this May, I will not look back.
Description sounds a lot like Sunday’s description: black/African American, 18-22 and 20-30 years old, black four door sedan and dark four-door car, skinny and tall, and obviously guns. Wonder if they’re connected.
In winter early 2011, I came nearly close to being robbed at Cougar Village. I left the door slightly ajar just to dump some recyclables down the hallway and I passed a black guy, a black girl, and two hispanic guys going the opposite direction. As I was walking back, I noticed they were going into my room. I quickly ran up to them and the 2 hispanic guys freaked out and ran, while the black guy and girl were stuttering to come up with a weak excuse when I asked them WTH they were doing there: “Uh, is this Lil’ John’s room?” I guess it didn’t hurt to check the room number? Luckily they didn’t have guns/weapons and I told them to scram b/c they technically hadn’t done anything.
Spring semester hadn’t started yet, so it was a close call. I did call UHPD though. However, I felt very angry that group tried to rob me, so I decided to see if I could spot them on the empty campus. I managed to spot them less than an hour later sitting outside Moody Towers (the black boy and girl at least) and snapped some photos discretely with my Canon so I could give something to the police. The girl eventually saw me at some point, so I scrammed and sent decent photos to UHPD who seem to somewhat recognize them.
Lots of crimes happen, gunpoint or not, and I still choose to live on campus because I believe for the most part it’s safe. However, these recent crimes are terrible and UHPD needs to be actively patrolling these outlying lots. The next thing that may happen is a student might get shot. UH will have a tough time with credibility if they can’t respond effectively to recent gunpoint robberies.