Students Mugged, Assaulted on 112th Street

Two students were robbed and assaulted early Monday morning on W. 112th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam, according to a security alert released by Columbia’s Department of Public Safety.

At around 2:40 a.m., the perpetrator attempted to grab a victim’s bag from behind, and “threatened them [the students], telling them he would shoot them, and he then punched each of them as he took their property,” the alert said.

Public Safety described the suspect as a male in his late thirties to early forties, with a thin build. The suspect has a moustache and goatee, short hair, and was last seen wearing a “waist-length dark blue or black puffy jacket” and a “dark colored beret.”

The mugging marks the latest of several robberies that have taken place over the past few weeks. Last week, according to police statistics, four robberies occurred within the 26th Precinct, which is bound by W. 110th Street, W. 133rd Street, and St. Nicholas Park. On Jan. 29, three men jumped out of a car and robbed a woman walking on Riverside Drive and W. 119th Street, although she was not seriously injured. Police recently arrested the perpetrator of robberies of seven stores in Morningside Heights.

daniel.amzallag@columbiaspectator.com