A 21-year-old University of Chicago student was robbed at gunpoint last week, and fought back, removing the magazine from her attacker’s weapon. The student, who was only identified by her first name, Madelyn, by Chicago’s WMAQ-TV, was approached by a man in a ski mask last Wednesday afternoon. The incident, which was captured on surveillance video, happened while the student was walking home from class in the 5600 block of South University.
"I see a man in a ski mask coming toward me, and I attempt to keep walking," Madelyn told WMAQ-TV. When the assailant flashed his gun and demanded Madelyn hand over her cell phone, however, she instinctually resisted.
"He is grabbing for my phone," said Madelyn, "and I am kinda pulling it behind my back." As Madelyn was struggling with the thief, video footage captured two men witnessing the event. One runs away and the other stands by doing nothing while Madelyn struggles with the robber. "In the tussle, I was able to take the magazine out of his gun, and I tossed it into a bush. But at the moment, I didn't know what I was grabbing,” she continued.
The robber did take Madelyn's phone but apparently discarded it after fleeing the scene. Police later recovered the device, returning it to Madelyn. Two other students were robbed at gunpoint that same day.
UChicago students are frequently robbed and attacked on or near campus. In 2021, Dennis Shaoxiong Zheng, a recent UChicago graduate originally from China, was gunned down during an attempted armed robbery north of campus, sparking large protests led by Chinese UChicago students.
Madelyn, who was a freshman when Zheng was killed, urged others not to fight armed robbers. "I did not register the situation," she stated. "It all happened so quickly. Definitely just give the phone away. I don't think the altercation was the best solution."
"This school has a lot of resources,” Madelyn added. “There are ways to heighten security so students are not getting gunned down in the middle of the day."
However, radical left-wing UChicago student groups, such as CareNotCops, want the opposite for heightened security for students and community members. CareNotCops specifically advocates for the abolishment of the University of Chicago Police Department, insisting that the department, which happens to be a majority black and Hispanic, is “racist.”
Meanwhile, students and South Side locals alike are routinely terrorized by criminals because they are left vulnerable by soft-on-crime Chicago leaders and an ever-dwindling Chicago police force. Indeed, while Madelyn stood her ground against her attacker and made it out alive and unrobbed, many others, like Zheng, are not so fortunate.
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