A Brown student was not harmed in an evening mugging Monday that three other Brown students witnessed and tried to stop.
Judy He '06 did not suffer any injuries when a man mugged her in Fones Alley between Thayer and Brook streets at about 9:45 p.m.
He, a Herald photo editor, was talking on the phone in Fones Alley as she walked towards The Herald's back door when the man approached her from behind.
"I was really surprised," she said. "Luckily, he didn't have a weapon."
He said she struggled with the suspect as he tried to take her bookbag. "I kept trying to hit him in the balls, but it wasn't working," she said.
As He struggled, a Herald editor drove into Fones Alley, saw He struggling with the suspect and called the police.
Mathew Geltzeiler '05 noticed the struggle from a parking lot on the other side of Brook Street. Geltzeiler and Sachin Shah '05 were returning from squash practice and were walking through Fones Alley after parking their car.
"By the time we got close enough to see they were struggling, he had broken away from her," Geltzeiler said.
He lost her hold on her bag as two cars pulled into the parking lot. She initially tried to run after the suspect and then asked Geltzeiler and Shah to chase after him, as well.
According to witnesses, the mugger was a black man about 5 feet 10 or 11 inches tall, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, white T-shirt and black sweatpants.
The suspect ran out of Fones Alley to Brook Street, then turned east onto Angell Street. Geltzeiler said he found He's bag on Angell Street, where the suspect dropped it before reaching Cooke Street. Nothing had been removed from the bag.
Shah continued to follow the suspect but said he remained between 15 and 20 feet behind him during the chase. Shah said he saw the suspect turn off of Angell Street and slow to a walk before turning onto Stimson Avenue, at which point Shah he lost sight of the suspect.
Both witnesses said they had no reason to believe the suspect was armed. As of late Monday night, neither the Department of Public Safety nor Providence Police would release any information about the investigation.
