Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 4, 1995 TAG: 9505040081
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
The woman, who was not identified, said a man grabbed her as she was walking between Russell Hall and Washington Hall just before 10 p.m., campus police report. She said the attacker threw what she believed to be a T-shirt over her head.
The victim broke free and got away, but she could not give authorities a description of her attacker, said Radford University Police Director Toby Phillips.
"She ran off and did not look back," he said, adding that the woman bruised her hand when she fell to the sidewalk.
Phillips said no one witnessed the attack, which happened in a lighted, well-traveled area near the middle of campus and several dormitories, a short distance from Tyler Avenue.
To Betty Jones, the university's substance abuse and sexual assault education program director, the account was eerily similar to an off-campus incident she'd learned of several weeks ago. A female student told Jones a man came up behind her as she arrived home from work late one evening, put something over her head and started to drag her toward the rear of the building.
"A car pulled up and she got away," Jones related. "She was really upset."
Radford Police said Wednesday they had no report of the incident.
So-called "stranger assaults" are rare, even off campus, "especially what I call the jumping-from-the-bushes type of assault," Jones said. Monday's attack by an apparent stranger was the first she recalls in her four years at Radford.
Jones advises women who are attacked in such a manner to act fast. "Your chances of escaping are better if you respond quickly," she said.
Her files contain accounts of three dozen students who have reported sexual assaults this year, most off-campus and none involving strangers.
Phillips also said Wednesday he doesn't know if there's any connection between Monday's attack and an incident ten days ago, when a female student reported someone had grabbed her shirt in the Moffett quad area of campus. She also escaped harm.
Campus police have no clues in either case, he said.
"We have put fliers out in the residence halls asking people to be aware and be cautious," he said. The school's spring semester ends this week.
Jones said the campus is generally safe and well-lighted and has convenient emergency call boxes. The women attacked on campus were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, she suggested. "These people became victims because of their vulnerability."
University police have increased campus patrols and ask anyone to report suspicious activity to campus police at 831-5500.
by CNB