The armed robbery of a female student near campus Sunday night has sparked an ongoing investigation by the Somerville Police Department and ignited safety concerns among Tufts students.
The incident occurred at Leonard Street and Broadway, according to Somerville Deputy Police Chief Paul Upton. The suspect displayed a knife and robbed a 20-year-old student of her cell phone and wallet, Upton told the Daily in an e-mail on Monday.
Upton said the suspect was described as being in his late 20s or early 30s, about six feet tall with a heavy build. He was wearing a green T-shirt with an unidentified insignia on the front and a backward baseball cap. He may have had light hair.
Junior Laura Curren, who lives on Leonard Street, said the incident has given her some serious reservations about her personal safety in the area surrounding campus.
"I think that I should be able to walk from Davis [Square] to my house, which is a six-minute walk, at 9:30 at night and not have to worry about someone with a weapon trying to rob me or do worse," Curren said.
Senior Tracy Mayfield, who lives on Burget Avenue in Medford, feels that there has been an increase in violent crimes in the area against students during her time at Tufts.
"This particular incident was troubling because Leonard seemed like a safe street," she said. "It's well-lit and there's usually lots of people on it. I've walked down Leonard Street myself at much more dangerous hours than 9:30 on a [Sunday]."
An e-mail that the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) sent to the Tufts community on Monday described the incident and suggested safety measures available to students, such as using the TUPD safety escort and reporting "any suspicious person(s) or circumstances."
According to the TUPD Web site, "the Tufts University Police provides vehicle and walking escorts 24 hours a day, seven days a week between campus locations and to nearby rapid transit stations."
Mayfield said that she frequently uses the escort service when walking alone at night, but believes that TUPD should be more active in promoting this option. She said the escort service "isn't very well-advertised."
She said she had sometimes gotten "negative reactions" from the TUPD dispatcher when calling earlier in the evening.
TUPD Captain Mark Keith noted a marked increase in calls to the campus escort service over the past few nights, which typically occurs after incidents like Sunday's.
"We're encouraging people to call for safety escorts, particularly at night if they're concerned about getting to their destinations," Keith said.
Curren has been taking other precautions since the incident. She and her housemates have started walking in pairs and riding bicycles more often, she said.
But not all students feel compelled to take new safety measures. Senior Kristine Babick said that she is largely unfazed by the robbery because it is only one in a string of similar occurrences.
"It's not like this is the first time this has happened," Babick said. "This is one in many incidents of me not being safe in or around Tufts. I think the surrounding communities see us as an easy target."
Although Babick said she gives TUPD the "benefit of the doubt," she questioned how much protection the department offers.
"Clearly there are a great number of students living off campus in a few concentrated neighborhoods, and I think it's TUPD's responsibility to be patrolling these neighborhoods," she said. TUPD is only responsible for patrolling on campus.
Keith said yesterday that he was unaware of whether any new information had emerged from Somerville's investigation. Upton could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The Somerville police first notified TUPD of the incident on Sunday, and TUPD posted security alerts in dormitories and sent out an e-mail alert to the Tufts community the next day.
The e-mail came after the posted alerts because physically distributing messages is given higher priority by university officers, Keith said.
Jeremy White and Ben Gittleson contributed reporting to this article.
