David Briggs, public information officer for the IUPUI Police Department, said all is back to normal Wednesday after three armed robberies were reported within six hours near the IUPUI campus Tuesday.
Briggs said he does not believe any suspects in the case have been apprehended. He said the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department has taken the lead on the case because all robberies occurred off-campus.
The first alert Tuesday from IU Emergency Updates, issued at about 4 p.m., advised students to seek shelter for approximately 90 minutes because a subject with a gun was reported running toward campus from the 700 block of Blake Street. A second alert announced two more armed robberies near campus and was sent at about 8:30 p.m.
Two suspects were reported, according to the alert. One was described as a black male, 6’4” with a thin build, a black sweatshirt with neon green writing on the front and short hair. The second suspect was described as a black male, between 5’9” and 5’10”.
The suspect in the first robbery was described as a black male, between 6’3” and 6’4,” wearing a black hoodie, blue jeans and a hat with yellow writing.
According to the alert, the suspects were last seen fleeing west toward Blake Street.
IU spokesperson Mark Land said this description was very similar to the alert sent out earlier this afternoon.
Land said individuals, not commercial businesses, were robbed. He said in Tuesday afternoon’s robbery, cash and a cell phone were stolen.
An update just before 4 p.m. lifted the shelter in place alert at IUPUI and stated that the suspect in the Tuesday afternoon robbery had not been located but additional IU Police Department officers would be patrolling campus Tuesday evening.
IUPUI tweeted at 10:37 p.m. that campus could return to normal operations. Police searched the campus and no suspects were found.
Briggs said no extra police patrols have been in place today, but each shift of patrols has been doing extra checks on campus.
Briggs encouraged anyone with information to contact the IUPUI Police Department,
Carley Lanich
