When walking home from class on Wednesday, April 17, a 21-year-old, female student at the University of Chicago, Maddi, was jumped by a masked man who demanded her phone from her. Instead of giving it to him, she fought back and was able to disarm the armed attacker, eventually getting the magazine out of the gun while trying to get her phone back.
Speaking to WGN, Maddi explained that she was just on a walk home, going along the city’s South University Avenue, when the masked man suddenly appeared, approaching her and demanding her phone. She said that he flashed a gun at her, and she went “blank” but got into a fight with him over the phone and firearm, describing the fight as a “blackout moment.”
She said, in her comments to WGN, “He flashes the gun towards me and I kind of just go blank, I throw the phone behind my hands, we get into this tussle, and he eventually gets the phone from me.” She continued, “I was grabbing maybe for my phone, maybe the gun, it’s really a blackout moment for me, and I realize that I was able to grab the magazine out of the gun.”
Maddi also told the outlet that it is “upsetting” that University of Chicago students get so many alerts about crime in the area, as they become “desensitizing” after a while. She said, “I’ve always felt safe, personally. It’s upsetting as students we get these alerts all of the time. They’re very frequent, they vary in the severity of them. It’s just troubling that it becomes so desensitizing.”
She added, when speaking about the incident in which she was targeted, that after growing accustomed to such common alerts, she didn’t think she would be targeted, particularly since she was walking along a major school thoroughfare in broad daylight. She said, “You never think it’s going to be you. I was walking on South University, which is a major artery of this school, it’s well-populated, it was broad daylight.”
Maddi also told the outlet that she doesn’t recommend fighting back as she did, as it isn’t safe, and had she thought about what she was doing, she certainly would not have gotten into a tussle with the armed attacker. She said, “I couldn’t necessarily really register the threat ahead of me, so definitely wouldn’t advocate for fighting back. Losing a life over a phone is definitely not worth it.”
The incident was caught on tape, helping give the police more evidence regarding what happened. Watch the video of the incident here:
In a press release that came after a slew of attempted robberies, including the one against Maddi, the university released a statement saying, “The University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) is working with the Chicago Police Department to address crimes in our community, including investigating the armed robberies of three individuals that occurred on and near our campus on the afternoon of April 17.”
Continuing, the university added that it would be increasing its security posture following the attempted robberies as the police try to find and arrest the suspects. It said, “In addition to the ongoing work of apprehending suspects in these cases, UCPD and our Campus Safety Ambassadors have increased their presence in the area.”
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