Four men robbed in two incidents just minutes apart

Two Labor Day muggings brought the number of forceful robberies in College Park to at least five since students began to return to the city about two weeks ago — a trend that police officials say is alarming and cannot continue.

Although there appear to be fewer armed and strong-arm robberies happening near the campus this year — this time last year there had been 22 total robberies since January, while this year Prince George's County Police have only logged 19 so far — the recent rash of incidents near the campus marks an uptick in crime that District 1 Commander Maj. Robert Liberati said indicates criminals know students are back.

The two most recent attacks, which occurred just four minutes apart from each other, involved two gunpoint robberies a half-mile from one another, according to a Prince George's County Police crime alert sent yesterday.

In the first incident, two non-student males were walking on the Old Trolley Trail near Osage Street at about 10:25 p.m. when they noticed two men in the park on Lakeland Road. As the men approached, they drew a gun and pointed it at one of the victims, the victims told police.

The suspects told the victims to not look at their faces and demanded their money. They also went through the victims' pockets and stole their property before the pair fled down Lakeland Road.

The first suspect was described as a black male, approximately 18 to 20 years old, 5 feet 11 inches tall with a slim build and dark clothes. He brandished a black semi-automatic handgun. The second suspect was described as a 5-foot, 10-inch black male weighing 200 pounds and wearing a red and white striped shirt and a red baseball cap.

Just about a third of a mile down the path, two men, who police said may be connected to the suspects in the first crime, robbed two non-students.

The same crime alert said the second set of victims, who are also males, were walking home on Navahoe Street from the Paint Branch Metro station when two men approached them. One of the suspects pointed a handgun toward the first victim. The other victim started screaming. According to the crime alert, the suspects told him to keep quiet and turn over his valuables. The victims handed over their property, and the suspects fled toward Route 1.

Both suspects in the second crime were black men between the ages of 18 and 22. The first was described as 5 feet 10 inches tall and wearing a black T-shirt, gray tank top and black pants. He used a black handgun in the robbery. The second suspect was described as 5 feet 7 inches tall, having dreadlocks and wearing dark clothing.

With at least five robberies near the campus over the past two weeks, Liberati said prevention is paramount. He said more officers than usual, including himself at times, will patrol the streets of College Park.

"The main focus ... is prevention of robberies," he said. "You will see a lot more of us in the streets."

Liberati said with students wandering the city's streets, some for the first time, criminals see the early weeks of the semester as easy pickings. Although crime has been worse the past two weeks than it was in the opening weeks of last year, Liberati said it is not clear why.

"We're pulling out everything to try to figure this out," Liberati said. "The five that we've had is five too many."

With the exception of an Aug. 27 incident at the Clarion Hotel on Route 1, police have not made any arrests in connection with any of the recent robberies.

Liberati said the first step in tracking down suspects is being more aggressive on the streets of College Park. The second will be looking for some familiar faces of "lifelong criminals."

Students can do their part to reduce crime as well, Liberati added.

"Be careful about the amount of alcohol you consume," he said, adding that drunk students are easy targets for criminals. "It's tough for that person to identify who's robbing them."

Students said the recent barrage of local crime reports is unnerving but unlikely to prevent them from going out at night.

Although some students said they're concerned when they go out, sophomore elementary education major Courtney Kane said most students don't think of themselves as potential victims.

"I feel like everyone thinks ‘It's not going to happen to me,'" she said.

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