HOUSTON – A gunpoint robbery at a University of Houston housing complex is raising new concerns about safety, especially in an area packed with fraternities and sororities.
UH police say the suspect displayed a gun, demanded purses, then took off.
The robbery happened in the parking lot just outside the Bayou Oaks gate, where UH police say the suspect carried out the holdup.
Students tell KPRC 2’s Deven Clarke they’re not only scared, they’re frustrated, because they say incidents like this are starting to feel normal.
Bayou Oaks is a University of Houston townhome community just off the main campus and home to many fraternity and sorority members.
UH police say the robbery happened around 2:35 a.m. in the parking lot at 5019 Calhoun Road.
The suspect reportedly ran west across the parking lot and disappeared after the robbery.
One student said safety concerns have been building for some time, pointing to multiple incidents last year that left people worried.
Another student said the university appeared to add security measures briefly, but that those efforts didn’t last.
A third student described thinking, in the moment, that it was “really happening again.”
Several students also said they feel they’re not alerted quickly enough. One student said they didn’t receive the email notification until around 7:30 a.m.
Another student, who goes by Mo, said he wasn’t surprised, calling it more disappointing than anything and adding that on a Friday night, students are going to go out.
The suspect is described as a slim male, about five foot, six inches tall. He is said to have been wearing gray sweatpants and a surgical mask at the time of the robbery.
UH police are asking anyone who was in the area early Saturday morning, and may have seen something, to contact them with information.