Three students were held at gun point by two black males about 6 feet tall wearing masks and hoods on Wednesday morning.
This occurred at the student’s residence on the 1000 block of Rex and Locust streets, about four blocks from campus.
One student, who asked to remain anonymous, was beaten repeatedly with the gun and an Xbox controller. He was taken to Ball Memorial Hospital around 11:30 a.m. and received six staples for his head injury, said resident Jack Smith, a sophomore telecommunications major.
“They started asking where his money was and stuff like that and he refused to tell them where it was,” Smith said. “So they started pistol-whipping him. They hit him a lot.”
Another roommate was hit in the back of the head but did not go to the hospital.
Randy Wiggins, Muncie Police Dispatch, confirmed an officer and canine responded to a call made at 10:43 a.m. and a report was made.
Smith said he did not see any University Police at his house that day, although Joan Todd, Executive Director of Public Relations, said her records showed one UPD officer was on the scene.
Todd said when both police departments are involved only one files a report.
Smith said police arrived after the suspects fled, five minutes after they were called, and searched the neighborhood for about an hour.
He said the suspects probably fled because they didn’t expect six people to be in the house.
Smith said the university should have responded.
“There absolutely should have been an alert,” Smith said. “It would have been helpful if everybody had been on the lookout.”
Todd said the university makes the choice on a case-by-case basis whether to send out an alert.
“This particular case, it was very quickly determined there was no risk to the campus community,” she said. “It was an isolated incident so a public safety notice was not warranted.”
Smith said he was asleep when the men entered his house. He said he heard shouting, opened the door, saw the gun and immediately slammed the door.
“It was pretty overwhelming; I still just think it was a freak thing that happened. I definitely am a little more paranoid,” Smith said.
Smith said he believes the perpetrators must have known some of the residents because it seemed odd to him that they would perform a burglary in broad daylight, or randomly pick his house.
“Before today I was not really for guns but I’m actually considering getting one now,” Smith said. “It was kind of frightening so I definitely get that people feel that they need a gun for protection.”
