Ryan Murphy
News Editor
Four more robberies have occurred on or near VCU’s Monroe Park campus, the latest in a string of robberies and violent crimes that have plagued the areas around the university.
The most recent robbery was just after 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, when two victims were approached by two men on the 1200 block of West Clay Street. One of the men showed a handgun, and the robbers took the victims’ cell phones and keys before fleeing on foot.
Between 9:50 p.m. and 10:12 p.m. on the evening of Oct. 16, three robberies occurred in rapid succession, the first of which involved a VCU student and occurred near the Singleton Performing Arts Center.
Four people have been arrested in connection with that robbery: Tyrieff Howard, Harold L. Cox Jr., Tyquisha Q. Carter and Jyquon R. Jackson, who is believed by police to be the robber in question, with the others charged as accomplices. All of those charged are 18 years old and from Henrico County except Jackson, who is from Richmond.
The second and third robberies occurred on West Clay Street within 20 minutes of the initial robbery on VCU’s core campus. In a statement to the VCU community by email the next day, VCU Police Chief John Venuti said that the four young people were suspects in all three of the robberies.
“These swift arrests within hours of the crimes send a clear message that VCU Police will not tolerate crimes against its community and will aggressively pursue anyone coming to our campus to cause harm,” Venuti said in the statement.
He also reaffirmed that safety is VCU’s top priority, a sentiment that has been expressed by the VCU Police Department and the university’s administration many times in the past two weeks, since a string of six robbery-related crimes on or near the Monroe Park campus on Oct. 8 began two weeks of high-profile crimes. Those crimes also included a stabbing a block from MCV on Oct. 9 and an Oct. 13 home invasion by five or six armed men on the 100 block of South Laurel Street, also on VCU’s Monroe Park Campus.
VCU held a town hall meeting to allow students a chance to respond to the crime wave. At that meeting, Venuti said that VCU Police were going to be working more closely with Richmond Police. Earlier that week, VCU President Michael Rao met with top Richmond officials, including Mayor Dwight Jones, about ways to keep VCU’s campuses safe.