Campus, City, News

Students, residents are concerned after third armed robbery

Boston University students were alerted to the third armed robbery in the past 12 days on Friday evening, an incident markedly similar to the past two. Some BU students said Friday’s incident might be related to the previous robberies.

At about 5:15 p.m. on Friday, three suspects robbed a victim and showed a handgun at St. Paul Street and Thatcher Street in Brookline, according to the BU Alert Service.

The text message alert described the suspects as three black males between the ages of 13 and 18, one of whom showed a handgun.

Suspects were dressed in grey, white and red sweatshirts.

The BU Police Department and Brookline Police Department were both unavailable to comment.

The victim is identified as a recent college graduate and is unharmed, according to the Brookline Police Department’s news blog.

The suspects fled on foot toward Commonwealth Avenue and an investigation is in progress, according to the blog.

College of Communication junior Chris Roewe said he left his apartment on Egmont Street around 30 minutes before the robbery occurred.

“I just got back to my apartment, so I did see a ton of police outside my street, which is Egmont, and they were talking to a bunch of people around the area,” Roewe said.

This is the third armed robbery near BU’s campus in less than two weeks.

A similar incident also involving three black male suspects occurred on Sep. 25 at Egmont Street and St. Paul Street, The Daily Free Press reported.

One suspect in the Sep. 25 robbery of three students was wearing a blue sweatshirt and another was wearing a red sweatshirt, and both were described to be in their late teens to early twenties.

Just two days before, another two BU students were robbed at gunpoint at 2:55 a.m. on Thorndike Street, the Free Press also reported.

The suspects, two black males estimated to be about 16 to 20 years old, took the two students’ cell phones and money.

Police have not yet verified any relation between the three armed robberies.

Roewe said the cases are very similar and some relation is likely.

The locations, he said, are also nearby one another.

“You can literally see where it happened from the last location,” he said. “It’s so close.”

Although he said he feels safe on Egmont because people are almost always near him, Roewe said he was suspicious about incidents like these occurring during the daytime.

“I’m surprised that somebody would go out in daylight and do this kind of thing,” Roewe said.

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One Comment

  1. I’ve lived on the Brighton/Brookline line for over twenty years, and have never felt anything but 100 percent safe in this neighborhood up ’til now. One of the attractions of the area is that it’s pedestrian-friendly, and nearly everything is within walking distance. It would be a shame if people became afraid to walk, for fear of this kind of thing. Hopefully they’ll find and arrest the robbers in short order.