Though it was relatively early in the evening, in a well-lit area near the UVA athletics building, a student and an assistant professor were robbed at gunpoint and one was assaulted around 9:20pm, Friday, February 16.
The student and professor, both male, were walking in a parking lot near Bryant Hall when they were approached by two men. The suspects pointed guns at the pair and demanded their wallets. One suspect returned the student’s wallet after removing the cash, the other victim had his wallet and all its contents stolen.
Before running off, one suspect struck the professor on the back of the head with his handgun. The two men, described as black males in their 20s, were dressed in dark clothing.
 A student and an assistant professor were robbed at gunpoint in a parking lot near Scott Stadium. |
“It’s very rare for these occasions to occur up here, but we obviously take them very seriously,” says UVA Police Chief Mike Gibson.
But this isn’t the first pistol whipping to occur in the UVA area recently. On October 6 last year, a student was robbed and pistol-whipped on Elliewood Avenue. A few days earlier, a Charlottesville man was robbed at gunpoint at Barracks Road Shopping Center. The suspects in those two cases seem to travel in a posse of three—two black males and one white male with a distinctive tattoo on the back of his neck, all described as being in their 20s. That crew rolls in a dark sedan with “tricked out” wheels, according to police. City spokesman Ric Barrick says City police are working a few leads on those cases, but are still seeking the public’s help.
University and City police are working on Friday’s assault. Despite the pistol whipping link, they have not connected the recent crimes.
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