Four KSC students victims of knife-point robbery
Karina Barriga Albring
News Editor
The good old times when walking around Keene at any time of the day or the night seemed perfectly safe and usual for the college students are now long gone. Since the beginning of 2013, two armed robberies directly related to the college have been registered and the student body’s sense of safety is certainly disturbed.
Keene State College sophomore Molly McCarthy said she feels unsafe in Keene.
“You hear about criminal incidents like every week. That is not normal. There is definitely something going on here,” McCarthy said. She said she tries to avoid walking alone and specifically does not go into dark areas.
The most disturbing incident so far occurred last weekend. While the KSC Ice Hockey Club team cheered up Friday night with a victory over the University of Southern Maine, criminal activity made the end of the night disturbing and frightening.
A knife-point robbery and assault occurred around 3 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 2, about a half-mile away from Keene State College at the intersection of Water Street and Willow Street, reported the Keene Police Department.
The four victims were KSC college students, confirmed the College Liaison Officer Katie Corbett on Saturday around 5:30 p.m.. One of the victims was injured with non-life threatening wounds to the throat.
Campus Safety informed the student body and faculty members about the incident on Saturday at noon through a email notification.
Campus Safety stated students should “use caution and be aware when walking near or around campus, walk with others and avoid shortcuts and poorly lit areas.”
According to a press release, in the early hours of Saturday four individuals approached a group of four male students, threatened the victims with a knife and demanded the victims turn over their possessions. According to the police report of the scene, three out of the four suspects wore knitted masks.
Police said the wounded student cooperated with the suspects’ demand, yet he was still injured.
According to Union Leader, the student was then taken to the Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene, where he was treated.
The Keene Police Department stated the suspect who appeared to be the leader took off his mask before the victims ran away. He was described as a white male approximately five feet, nine inches in height, approximately in his late teens, wore glasses and had blonde hair. Police indicated during the incident he was wearing white “camo-type” pants with a white sweater and a dark knit mask.
KPD informed the State Police and the local police used the department’s K-9 handler to try to locate the suspects. The search provided no further information.
In their press release, the police described the event as “random in nature.” The Keene State College liaison officer Katie Corbett said, “we believe it might not have been planned… the victims might not have been ‘targeted’ by the attackers.”
When questioned about the age of the presumed attacker Corbett said on Saturday afternoon,”it is difficult to tell, it could be someone that was 17, 18, 20, 21.”
However, KPD is now investigating two suspects in this case. According to Sergeant Christopher Simonds from KPD, the two suspects allegedly involved in the knife-point robbery are two juvenile males.
According to the policeman, the two suspects matched the descriptions given by the college students that were attacked. The young males were found in early hours on Sunday walking on Gilbo Avenue.
Simonds said the minors have been turned over to their parents. “We cannot detain them, they are minor and they belong with their parents,” Simmons expressed.
According to him, the investigation is still open. At the time this issue was submitted for print, KPD had not filed charges against any suspect.
Simonds stated his department has no information about the two other suspects involved in the robbery. He also said that the police had no other reports regarding criminal activity in Keene over the weekend.
Director of Campus Safety Amanda Warman also expressed there had not been any other severe incidents on campus. “Apart from the robbery, we did have any other calls that weekend, except for the usual marijuana and alcohol related calls,” Warman said.
However, a KSC student said that on the early hours of Sunday, Feb. 5, he had a frightening encounter with two subjects wearing masks.
Less than 24 hours after the knife-point robbery that threatened the safety of four KSC students and sent one of them to the hospital, junior Ethan Seaman said he was followed by two male individuals wearing a mask as he went back to his house on Spring Street from a friend’s house.
“I was alone,” he said and stated he saw a man urinating. “He was wearing a mask, so I thought ‘I am not getting near that dude,’” the student explained.
Seaman said the masked individual started to follow him and asked him questions. “He kept telling me to stop and talk to him and asked why I didn’t talk to him.” According to Seaman, another masked subject approached him as he was walking on Railroad Street toward Main Street.
“The both started walking faster and then jogging. I was very scared and started running,” he told.
The student said the individuals were shouting at him while they followed him. “They were talking nonsense. They said things like that I looked like their brother and that they were looking for their brother.”
Seaman noted he got the impression that the subjects were not sober. “I don’t think that they were drunk, but there was definitely something in their system; they looked disturbed.”
Seaman described that he ran on the street until he saw a vehicle and asked for help. He said the subjects kept talking to him while he was standing by the car.
Seaman said he reported this incident to the Keene Police Department later on Sunday morning. He said he disagrees with some actions KPD takes. “I think they should be doing better things than just chasing drunk college students over the weekend,” he said. Seaman commented he feels, “the police use a lot of resources to patrol around the college campus and leave other parts of downtown really unattended.”
Regarding the knife-point robbery, Director of Campus Safety Amanda Warman said that the college has received no further updates about the investigation from the KPD. “We will inform the KSC community through a communication once we get more information,” Warman stated.
Regarding the actions the college will take following the robbery and in order to insure safety among students, Warman said, “We need to have more information about what happened in order to take action.”
Warman also expressed that Campus Safety constantly works with KPD and intents to keep the KSC community informed by realizing notifications.
Karina Barriga Albring can be contacted at
kbarriga@keene-equinox.com
