A Georgetown student was robbed at gunpoint early Friday evening less than four blocks from campus.
At approximately 9 p.m. on Oct. 14, Andrea Wong (MSB ‘09) and a friend were returning home from shopping on Wisconsin Ave. when they spotted two young men loitering near the intersection of 33rd St. and O St.
“They were just standing in the dark with not a lot of purpose,” Wong said. “I could tell they were not Georgetown students.”
Wong’s friend, who wishes to remain anonymous due to privacy concerns, said she knew immediately the two men were suspicious. “No one was on the street except these guys,” she said.
Wong and her friend crossed to the other side of the street, speaking loudly in order to attract the attention of other pedestrians, including a group of four Georgetown students walking slightly ahead of them on the next block.
Immediately after crossing the street, Wong and her friend were approached by two other young men heading in the direction of Wisconsin Ave. The pair began following the students at an accelerated pace.
Despite their best efforts to reach the students ahead of them, the two girls were overtaken by one of the men, who grabbed the hair of Wong’s friend. “I didn’t see her hair being pulled,” Wong said. “I just heard the screaming and blanked out. It was like a nightmare and I didn’t think it was really happening.”
The assailant then pulled out a gun and held it to the head of Wong’s friend, demanding her purse. “He shouted, ‘Shut up or I’ll shoot you,’” Wong’s friend said. “Even if I gave him my purse, I didn’t know he wasn’t going to shoot me.”
She surrendered her purse, and the man fled alone on foot.
“It was a very, very bad situation,” Wong said.
Associate Vice President of Student Affairs Jeanne Lord was one of the first people on the scene after the robbery occurred, having heard screams while walking down 33rd St. “I heard someone yelling and rushed over,” she said. “I went over to see if they were okay.”
When she reached the two girls, she said, there was already a big group of students surrounding them. The Department of Public Safety and the Metropolitan Police Department were notified of the incident and showed up within minutes.
In what DPS believes to be a related incident, another pair of Georgetown students was held up the same night at a nearby location. According to an Oct. 17 public safety announcement from DPS, the students were approached by a man who threatened them and demanded money. After receiving $25 from one student, the suspect fled the scene. No weapon was used.
These robberies come three weeks after DPS released its crime statistics for last year, which saw a marked increase in robberies on campus and in the surrounding neighborhood.
DPS could not be reached for comment.
