SMU students on edge after string of robberies near campus

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Southern Methodist University students are on edge after a robbery and attempted robbery happened within four days of each other. The latest victim was a student walking alone on campus in the middle of the night when she was approached by a man with a gun.

All students have received emails about both crimes and police at SMU are stepping up patrols to after potentially two different armed gunmen approached SMU students asking for their money.

Early Thursday morning, a student on campus says a gunman approached her by the Owens Art Center. She told police the man said "hand over all of your stuff." She said no and ran off. The student said it happened at 3 a.m. as she reported it to police seven hours later.

Just four days earlier at 2 a.m. Sunday, three SMU students and one of their mothers were walking along SMU Boulevard at Boedeker Street when they say a man robbed them at gunpoint. He got away with their wallets.

The two incidents have students worried.

“In class people gasped when they read the email,” said student Cameron Mills. “It's a surprise. You don't expect it."

“You see the cop cars everywhere,” said student Ryan Reeson. “The fact that that can still happen is unnerving I would say."

In each case, the suspect is described as a black man about 180 to 190 pounds. But police don’t believe the same man committed both robberies.

Students say they will now try to be more aware of their surroundings.

The University Park Police Department says this is their first case of aggravated robbery of a student this year.

Both SMU and University Park police would only say that their descriptions are different, yet the two vague descriptions are both a black man who weighs 180-190 pounds. The only difference is that the first robber had facial hair and they were wearing different clothes.