Tuesday. Thursday. Sunday. Tuesday.
In one week, USC saw a sudden uptick in crime on and around campus, with four incidents reported over a seven-day span.
The first came last Tuesday, when a man exposed himself to two female students at the intersection of Greene and Pickens Streets, near the Women’s Quad.
An armed robbery was reported on the Horseshoe last Thursday, after a man with a gun approached a student and demanded money. The man followed the student back to East Quad, where surveillance video shows him inside the residence hall with the student.
A Carolina Alert was issued to students early Sunday morning, warning about an armed subject carrying a pistol and heading toward Russell House.
Early Tuesday morning, students received another Carolina Alert about a second armed robbery, in which a victim was assaulted by a man with a baseball bat.
THE ACTION
Since last Tuesday, arrests have been made in two of the on-campus incidents.
Lloyd Benjamin Hicks, 44, was arrested and charged with exposing himself to the two women, and Kevin Rick Oneal, 40, was arrested Tuesday in connection to the Horseshoe robbery.
However, police could not locate the armed subject reported by Russell House, and the report remains unconfirmed. And after searching the area Tuesday morning, police could not find the suspect wanted for the most recent armed robbery. Those cases remain under investigation.
“None of us feels as safe as I would hope we would right now,” University President Harris Pastides said. “We had a bad week. What we don’t know is if we’re going to have a bad year.”
In a letter to students, faculty and staff Monday, Pastides outlined safety enhancements the university has begun to implement, including more visible police officers — both uniformed and not — stationed on campus, as opposed to around or nearby.
“One of our primary goals here is to make this campus as inhospitable as possible to criminals, to bad actors and to criminal behavior,” Chief Communications Officer Wes Hickman said. “We need to make it known to them that this isn’t a place where they’ll be able to operate.”
A smartphone application is to be released in the coming weeks, Pastides said, which is promised to make communication between students and USCPD easier and more efficient.
But when it comes to walking to dorms after dark, late-night shuttles to the safety-in-numbers Walk Home Cocky initiative are available to students involved in activities around campus.
“Life is life and college is college,” Pastides said. “The point at which I ever advise students not to lead their lives, that would be a very dark day around here.”
Pastides said he feels connected to students’ safety on a personal level, especially after second-year business student Martha Childress was struck by a stray bullet in Five Points last October, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down.
The last week, he said, has left him feeling angry and wanting to act.
“At some level, I feel paternal and violated on behalf of my students,” Pastides said. “I feel like I want to take care of them. I want to take better care of them.”
THE REACTION
For a warm August evening, the Horseshoe was noticeably bare Tuesday. Aside from a circle of students singing along with an acoustic guitar and a few students lugging backpacks on the way back from class, the air was still.
Just behind the Maxcy monument, a smaller group of students sitting nearby, talking and laughing as the sun continued to sink.
When the conversation turned to campus crime, the laughter died down.
“I’m not about that s—-,” said second-year German student Chelsea Morris.
The group chuckled, but only for a moment.
“How long have we been sitting out here?” second-year marine science student Andy Miller asked, looking to his friends. “I haven’t seen a single [police officer.] Granted, it’s a little early, but still.”
Over the last week, Student Body President Lindsay Richardson has gauged students’ thoughts regarding campus crime: Some said the volume of incidents was alarming, but others told her they weren’t sure what else could be done.
Richardson was unsettled by both responses.
“The fact that we’re having students who think it’s necessary to have knives under their pillows isn’t a good sign,” she said, referencing a student quoted in Monday’s edition of The Daily Gamecock.
Second-year business student Jessica Thiergartner used to run on the Horseshoe every evening. But after this week, she’s “way too freaked out.”
Laura Godenick, a third-year psychology student, said she only feels safe on campus at night if she’s on a bicycle — she feels like she could make a quicker getaway on two wheels.
Richardson admitted she’s felt tense with so many situations close to campus so close together, but her day-to-day hasn’t undergone drastic changes.
“I will say I’m paying more attention with everything going on, but I haven’t really stopped walking to my car or changed my walking routes,” Richardson said, shaking her head. “I’m still continuing as normal.”
But Richardson’s constituents told a different story.
“Do they sell Mace in the bookstore?” Morris asked.
“I doubt it,” Thiergartner said.
Morris looked to her friends and shrugged. “I don’t know where to buy it, but I feel like I should.”