Police increase foot and bike patrols on campus

Listen to sophomore broadcast journalism major Cooper Opalinski talk about his experience finding the victim outside of Olson Hall.

A third robbery took place late Monday night, 48 hours after two other robberies on and off campus.

Kent State University Police are investigating possible connections among the three, said Dean Tondiglia, associate director of public safety at Kent State.

While victims in the first two robberies were not injured, Tondiglia said the victim in the third robbery did have minor injuries.

“The victim was taken to Robinson Memorial Hospital and treated and released soon after,” he said.

Cooper Opalinski, sophomore broadcast journalism major, said he was making his way back to Olson Hall shortly before midnight Monday when he ran into the victim sitting on a bench outside the residence hall.

He said the victim told him he had been mugged and gave Opalinski his dorm key to go notify the resident assistant.

“By the time I made my way back to him, security was already there, just checking on him, seeing what was going on,” Opalinski said. “They told me that the police had been called and that they did not need me anymore.”

Tondiglia said university police are increasing on campus security to prevent future crimes such as robberies.

“We are getting more officers out on foot patrol and bike patrol,” he said. “We really just need to increase our numbers, especially in the general walking areas of campus.”

Tondiglia said police presence will be increased, specifically in the areas of the robberies. He could not elaborate on those security measures because he didn’t want to alert suspects of their plans.

Contact safety reporter Suzi Starheim at [email protected].

News correspondent Chris Clevenger contributed to this report.