Campus isn't a 'crime free uptopia"
Sabrina Seamon
Issue date: 2/19/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 3 next >
At 8:45 p.m. one Saturday night in October, McNeese student Nghia Nguyen was walking from his apartment in Fleur De Leis to visit his friend on campus, when a group of three men pointed guns to his head and demanded his money. When Nguyen reached into his pocket to retrieve his wallet, one of the men hit him in the face with the heel of the gun. While in the process of picking himself off of the ground, one of the men grabbed his wallet as he and his partners ran off into the night. After wiping the blood from his face, Nguyen quickly walked back to his apartment and called the Lake Charles Police Department.
Stories like this are not a common occurrence, but are also not unheard of. Concerning the subject of crime on campus, Detective LeBlue made the statement that, "people, especially parents, think that campus is a crime free utopia. It doesn't have some sort of bubble around it." Chief Salvador, MSU police, added that she felt that it was this misconception which lead to students unjustly letting their guard down in situations that they otherwise would not, if they were somewhere off campus.
In the past nine months, there have been six robberies in close proximity of, but not on campus and four robberies actually on campus (not in residence halls). According to MSU police, the similarities among the four were few, but each case occurred on the south east side of campus, all involved more than one attacker, all happened in late evening to night, and all victims were male. However, only two of those robberies involved guns and two did not, two involved international students as victims and two involved American students as victims.
While MSU police are currently investigating a lead, they have not as of February 15, filed any charges in conjunction with any of the four robberies. When MSU police were asked why there was no public mention made as to these events, Chief Salvador said that there were not enough similarities among each incident, and to release such a statement would be "irresponsible, and could cause a panic amongst students." Dean of Students Toby Osburn went on to say that "we (university officials) can't compete with the rumor mill."
Stories like this are not a common occurrence, but are also not unheard of. Concerning the subject of crime on campus, Detective LeBlue made the statement that, "people, especially parents, think that campus is a crime free utopia. It doesn't have some sort of bubble around it." Chief Salvador, MSU police, added that she felt that it was this misconception which lead to students unjustly letting their guard down in situations that they otherwise would not, if they were somewhere off campus.
In the past nine months, there have been six robberies in close proximity of, but not on campus and four robberies actually on campus (not in residence halls). According to MSU police, the similarities among the four were few, but each case occurred on the south east side of campus, all involved more than one attacker, all happened in late evening to night, and all victims were male. However, only two of those robberies involved guns and two did not, two involved international students as victims and two involved American students as victims.
While MSU police are currently investigating a lead, they have not as of February 15, filed any charges in conjunction with any of the four robberies. When MSU police were asked why there was no public mention made as to these events, Chief Salvador said that there were not enough similarities among each incident, and to release such a statement would be "irresponsible, and could cause a panic amongst students." Dean of Students Toby Osburn went on to say that "we (university officials) can't compete with the rumor mill."
Be the first to comment on this story