Man reportedly robbed at gunpoint at Varsity Villas

A 19-year-old man reported to the Bloomington Police Department he was robbed at gunpoint between midnight and 1 a.m. Saturday outside a Varsity Villas apartment on the 400 block of East Varsity Lane.

No one was severely injured in the altercation and no arrests have been made.
According to Bloomington Police Lt. Faron Lake, the victim said he was visiting a friend’s apartment when he dropped a shoe off the balcony. When he went to retrieve the shoe, he reportedly ran into four men.

Lake said one of the suspects then held the victim up against the wall of the apartment building with a knife. Another suspect pointed a semi-automatic handgun at his head, the victim reported. The suspects allegedly took a cell phone and $60 in cash from the victim, who reported this to the police about nine hours after the alleged crime occurred.

Following the altercation, Lake said several of the victim’s friends arrived and began chasing down the suspects. The chase ceased after one friend was pistol-whipped in the head and a suspect fired a shot in the air, Lake said.

The four suspects have been described as black men in their 20s. Two were reported as wearing red, flat-billed baseball caps and two were wearing beanies. All four men had short hair and were wearing black and gray hoodies, jeans and shoes, Lake said.

The case is still under investigation.

— Mark Keierleber