Student reports assault
A female student was assaulted on the evening of Nov. 9 while jogging on South Street in Waltham, Director of Public Safety Edward Callahan wrote in a Nov. 10 campus wide e-mail.According to the e-mail, which did not identify the student, she was "approached by three young men and knocked to the ground." Callahan wrote in the e-mail that "the student called Waltham Police from a friend's home nearby after the incident. Police searched the area, but did not locate the three men."
Callahan said that he has not directly spoken with other students who have experienced similar encounters but said he had heard from another student that "there may have been one incident that happened on the weekend of Halloween." However, Callahan said that the student has not come to see him to report or discuss the encounter, and he does not have the student's name.
In an interview with the Justice, the student, who said she wished to remain anonymous, confirmed that the assault happened on Nov. 9, that she went to a friend's house to call the police and that her friend brought her back to campus.
"They sent out squads to look around the area to see if they can try and find the guy that matched the description I had. They weren't able to find anyone," she said. She also said she was "seen by a few EMTs" but did not want to go to the hospital.
In an interview with the Justice, Callahan said that the Brandeis Department of Public Safety was informed "midday" on Nov. 10.
"I got a copy of the report from the Waltham Police, and then we . called the victim and talked with her and tried to pinpoint the exact location of the incident," Callahan said. He added that he suggested to the student that she visit the Golding Health Center and asked her if she would be willing to reconstruct a depiction of the people who assaulted her.
The student said that Waltham Police had asked her for a description prior to the Brandeis Police but that she did not feel she would be able to provide an accurate description.
"It happened too fast, and I wasn't paying attention to the three guys when it happened at the time, so I told Waltham Police that I didn't want to, and I called back the Brandeis Police today to tell them that I didn't think that I would be able to ... give them back a description," she said
Sgt. Timothy King, the spokesman for the Waltham Police Department, could not be reached for comment by press time despite repeated attempts to contact him. In an interview with the Justice, Ofc. Jorge Orta of the Waltham Police Department said that Det. John Comeau had been assigned to the case. Comeau could not be reached for comment by press time, and Orta said he did not know enough about the investigation to comment further.
In regard to the communication between Waltham Police and Public Safety, Callahan said that Public Safety is kept up-to-date with safety concerns in the greater Waltham area.
"Whatever usually happens in Waltham, I usually know about within a short span of time," he said, adding, "I think a day doesn't go by that I'm [not] in communication with the Waltham police for something."
In response to the incident, Callahan said that the Waltham Police had increased patrols on South Street in conjunction with University Police. He explained that University Police had always patrolled South Street but that this patrol was intensified in the aftermath of the incident.
Callahan also said that Public Safety had added additional escort vans to transport students around campus between 7 and 11 p.m. The e-mail to the community also explained, "While we hope this was an isolated incident, we remind members of the Brandeis community to be aware of their surroundings at all times-on and off campus."
When asked if students had consequently reported feeling unsafe after the incident, Callahan said that he had not heard or students feeling unsafe but that he had received e-mails from some students asking where the exact location of the incident was.
-Nashrah Rahman contributed reporting.
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