Police reports have misreported the location of an armed robbery that took place near campus last Sunday, according to a student who identified herself as the victim.
Junior Liz Friedman, 20, said she was robbed at knifepoint on the corner of Mason Street and Broadway in Somerville. But the Somerville Police Department told the Daily last week that the robbery happened on Leonard Street, two blocks away from Mason Street. The Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) echoed this information in safety alerts it posted and e-mailed to students early last week.
"I don't want people on Leonard freaking out and thinking their street isn't safe, and I also want people on Mason to know that they also should be careful," Friedman said. She said she came to the Daily with this information after telling TUPD it was reporting incorrect details and not seeing any action.
Friedman said that while walking to her friend's house from the T stop in Davis Square at around 9:30 p.m. on Nov. 16, she was tailed by a man as she turned from Broadway onto Mason Street. Suddenly, the man surprised her from behind, she said.
"He brings out this huge knife and holds it against my stomach," Friedman said. "He said something like, ‘Give it up.'" She handed over her cell phone first, then her wallet after the assailant repeated his demand, she said.
But the man continued pressing her, Friedman said, explaining that the man said something to the extent of, "Come on, you're coming with me."
"At that moment, someone [in a car] turned from Broadway onto Mason Street," she said. Upon seeing a car come around the corner, the junior says she ran the short distance to her friend's house on Whitman Street in "a blur." The Somerville police responded to the call she made when she arrived at the house.
The student body was not alerted to the crime until the next evening, when TUPD posted a public safety alert in on-campus dormitories and sent out a campus-wide e-mail. University police based the information in the alert on details provided to them by the Somerville police.
Acting Deputy Chief Paul Upton of the Somerville Police Department told the Daily on Tuesday that the incident occurred at "Broadway and Leonard Avenue," referring to Leonard Street. Reached for comment yesterday, Upton said he was unable to immediately verify how the discrepancy arose, but that the difference should not affect the police's response.
"Assuming that this was the correct location, this would not have a significant impact on the investigation," he said in an e-mail.
Friedman said that TUPD Sgt. Joseph Tilton contacted her on Tuesday regarding the incident and that she gave him an account of what happened. TUPD took an unusually long time to contact her due to a misspelling of her name in a police report, she said.
Friedman explained that upon seeing police repeatedly recount an inaccurate location, she approached Tilton later in the week about the error.
TUPD has yet to change the information, and an alert posted on the university's Web site still says the crime took place at Leonard Street. TUPD could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Friedman, who lives on College Avenue, said that she no longer feels safe around campus and that she and her friends have adjusted their lifestyles since the robbery.
"Everyone I know is being so much safer about not walking outside at night," she said. "I won't go anywhere at night now without another person there or in a car … I've had a lot of people talk to me who didn't even know it was me and said they were concerned."
She said Tilton told her that she could utilize TUPD's escort service. She said she had never done so and is reluctant to try it after hearing negative reports from friends who have.
"I've heard a lot of people complain that when they call for the escort service they get a lot of attitude," Friedman said. She added that she would support creating a similar, student-run service.
Last semester, the Tufts Community Union Senate passed a resolution in the spring that encouraged TUPD to improve the escort service, but the body stopped short of recommending a student-run program.
Students' concerns about the university's escort service often come to light after crimes around campus, and incidents like last week's armed robbery also trigger jumps in requests for the amenity. TUPD Capt. Mark Keith told the Daily last week that the increased volume of calls police received this week reflected that trend.
The suspect in last week's attack remains at large. According to the description provided by TUPD, he is white, in his late 20s or early 30s and six feet tall with a heavy build. During the crime, he wore a backward baseball hat and a green t-shirt with an insignia on the front. He may have had light-colored hair and been under the influence of alcohol, as he slurred his words.
