Four men assault, rob student on Hartwick Rd.

A group of four men assaulted and robbed a student on Hartwick Road early Saturday, according to a crime alert.

The student was at the intersection of Hartwick and Princeton Avenue in Old Town at 2:05 a.m. when the men approached him and one tackled him, the alert said.

The man tried to punch the student and missed, but a second man grabbed his wallet and took out cash, the alert said, and then all four muggers ran toward Route 1. The student suffered minor cuts on his face, the crime alert said.

Prince George's County Police, who are investigating the robbery, could not be reached for comment.

The crime alert noted that the student didn't alert police of the robbery until 3:20 p.m. Saturday — more than 13 hours after the incident. University Police Capt. Carolyn Consoli, who sent the alert to students, urged crime victims not to wait before calling 911.

"If you call immediately, we have a better chance of catching the suspect or suspects," she said.

In the Saturday mugging, the crime alert described the suspects:

The first man — who police believe tackled the student — was described as 6-feet-2-inches tall, 180 pounds, with dark complexion and short hair. The second — suspected of stealing the money — was described as around 5-feet-9-inches tall, 150 pounds and with a light complexion.

One of their companions was described as around six feet tall with a slim build and wearing a navy blue T-shirt; the fourth man was described only as a black male.

Saturday's robbery was the third student mugging in College Park in less than two weeks, an uptick in frequency from just a year ago.

Last fall, the first robbery reported after classes started occurred on Sept. 26, and nearly a month passed before a second incident was reported.

"I really couldn't tell you why there's a rise," University Police Capt. Marc Limansky said of the rise in crime. "These are crimes of opportunity. There's no logical reason why people commit these crimes."

But whatever the reason, he added, it's not for a lack of police presence.

The week before classes started and during the first week of classes, Limansky said six additional university police officers were taken off their normal patrol routes and deployed in downtown College Park to give safety tips, talk to students and monitor suspicious activity.

He added police did their best to quell underage drinking and parties behind Route 1, because those behaviors put students in a vulnerable position.

"It's not the cause of it, but it plays a part in it," Limansky said.

He said police will continue to do their best to make College Park a less desirable target for criminals.

"If people choose to come to College Park to commit these crimes, we have to make it unpleasant for them," Limansky said, adding there's no way to determine what crimes may have occured without their aggressive patrolling.

"We don't know what we prevented; there's no way to know that," Limansky said. "The absence of crime is a measure of success."

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