Student Robbed At Knifepoint

A male undergraduate student was robbed and assaulted at knifepoint—in broad daylight—in front of Widener Gate yesterday afternoon.

The victim, a sophomore, was walking from his residence to Lamont Library at around 3:35 p.m. while listening to his iPod when he noticed two men following him down Linden Street towards Harvard Yard, he wrote in an e-mail.

“One of the guys made eye contact with me and I kind of knew something was up,” the victim wrote. But, he said, he ignored them and continued across Mass. Ave., entering the Yard through the Widener Gate.

As he was passing the bicycle racks between Widener and Wigglesworth, the victim said, one of the men came from behind and put his arms around his shoulders and neck. At the same time, the other man punched him on the head and displayed a knife, according to a community advisory sent out by the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD).

“The knife was at least eight inches long,” the victim wrote. “And there happened to be no people around when it happened.”

The men demanded the victim’s iPod, which he gave to them, and the victim then took out his cell phone, preparing to call the police. At this point, the robbers also demanded the victim’s cell phone.

“I just threw my cell phone at them and ran the opposite way,” the victim wrote. “I went into the first store in front of me which was the Harvard Book Store and called the police.”

The victim described the two males as black, around 20 years old, and of medium height, with short black hair and wearing baggy pants.

The victim was granted anonymity so that he could speak freely about the case without fear of retaliation from the suspects, who are still at large.

According to the community advisory sent out by HUPD, the suspects have not been located, and the victim escaped uninjured.

“I’m fine now,” the victim said. “My head is a little bruised, but it’s not a big deal.”

He said that the robbery was a “freak incident,” and still feels safe walking around Harvard Square.

—Staff writer Anna L. Tong contributed to the reporting of this article.