Shooting, Armed Robberies Near University of Minnesota

Think your children are safe around the University of Minnesota campus?

Maybe it's time to reassess; this from the Minnesota Daily: "Three robberies, a shooting reported this week near U".

First this:

On Monday night, two boys, who were reported to appear to be about 15 years old, approached a student walking home from class by the intersection of 10th Avenue Southeast and Fifth Street Southeast. According to the report, the suspects said they had a gun and demanded the student’s wallet.

The student gave them the wallet and both suspects fled on foot. The student received no injuries.

Then this:

About 1 a.m. Sunday a recent University graduate was robbed on Sixth Street Southeast.

James Satter said he was walking home when two men ran up to him and pushed him down.

“The next thing I remember is I was on the ground and they were kicking me in the head,” Satter said.

The assailants tried to get his wallet, Satter said, but they didn’t put their hands far enough into his pocket to get it and ran off with nothing.

Satter said he spent the night at Hennepin County Medical Center because of a concussion.

Satter has been a resident of the area for about 12 years and never has experienced anything like this before, he said.

According to the report, the suspects are described as being in their late teens to early 20s. [Ed. - and...?]

And this:

About 1:35 a.m. Saturday a University student was robbed while smoking a cigarette on his porch.

Doug Weber, a global studies sophomore, was on his front porch on Eighth Street Southeast when two men approached him and asked for cigarettes.

Weber said he gave each of them one. The men then started asking him where the parties were at. Weber said he didn’t know.

The men then came on the porch, lunged at him and hit him, Weber said.

The men said they had a weapon and would shoot him if he didn’t give up his wallet.

“I was cooperative with them,” Weber said.

Weber said that after the attack, the men wanted him to go with them, but when he started to resist, they got into a car and drove away.

And this:

According to a police report, a shooting occurred about 4 a.m. Sunday at Santana Foods on University Avenue Southeast.

Jeremy Wessing, a cook at Santana Foods, said that about 2:30 a.m. three men came in to order food.

While they were there, they started harassing women in the shop. The owner asked them to stop.

One of the men got in the owner’s face and they started yelling at each other, Wessing said.

The owner escorted the three suspects out, Wessing said.

About 3:45 a.m., when there weren’t any customers in the store, employees heard a window break, Wessing said.

When the owner and Wessing went outside to look, one of the same men from earlier in the night was there, police said.

Ron Reier, the public information officer for the Minneapolis Police Department, said that when the owner went outside, the man confronted him with a handgun.

According to the report, the suspect shot at the owner and the owner shot back. Neither person was hit.

Wessing said that as the suspect was walking away, he slipped and at that point the owner could have killed him, but didn’t.

But he did fire at the car as the suspect was leaving the scene and blew out a tire and a window, Wessing said.

KSTP News also reports: "Three robbed near U of M in past week".

A series of violent robberies has occurred recently in neighborhoods near the University of Minnesota.

Police say at least three students have been robbed in the vicinity in the past week.

One student says he was approached by two men, one of whom said he had a gun.

“The guy over here said, ‘Yo, yo, I'm going to shoot you if you don't give me all that you got.’”

The student did not have enough money, causing the robbers to become violent.