Early Morning Gunshots Reported Near Edge of Campus

Early+Morning+Gunshots+Reported+Near+Edge+of+Campus

Joseph Kauffman, Editor-in-Chief

Gunshots were reportedly fired near the southern edge of IU Southeast’s campus during an attempted robbery early Thursday morning. An IU Southeast spokesperson confirmed the victim was not an IU Southeast student. No injuries were reported as a result of the incident.

The attempted robbery took place on Aug. 11 at approximately 2:05 a.m, according to an IU Southeast Crime Alert. The male victim was walking behind Culbertson Baptist Church at the corner of Grant Line Road and Hausfeldt Lane, near the wooded property between the church and Southern Drive. incident.

The victim said that he was approached by a black male with a thin build, between 5 feet 10 inches and 6 feet tall, wearing a white or grey hoodie. The suspect tried to stop the victim before telling the victim to lay down on the ground. When the victim instead ran, the suspect reportedly fired two or three shots toward the victim before getting into a vehicle containing two to three other people and heading southbound on Grant Line Road.

Nancy Joe Trafton, an IU Southeast spokesperson and the college’s director of marketing and communications, said that, after the incident, the victim ran across Grant Line Road to the Marathon gas station where he immediately called the New Albany Police Department who then referred the case to the IUS Police Department.

“IU Police are working with NAPD on this,” Trafton said. “At this time, they believe the suspect may be linked to another robbery that took place off campus 10 to 15 minutes later.”

Despite the early hour of the crime, campus officials did not sent out an IU Notify alert until 8:32 a.m.

“The suspect drove off in a direction that was away from IUS, and the police had video from Marathon’s surveillance cameras confirming that,” Trafton said. “The campus was deemed to be safe and in no immediate danger, so an alert was not issued until later that morning.”

Trafton said concerned students and their families should not worry that this incident took place so close to move-in day.

“Everything is being done to make sure everyone will be safe for move-in day and the first week of classes,” Trafton said. “We are accessing the situation and if we feel changes need to made as the investigation progresses we will not hesitate to implement them.”

Anyone with information about the incident  can contact the IUS Police Department at 812-941-2400.