Esteban Roman and two other students were victims of a robbery early Sunday morning while walking on North Boulevard. | Samantha Battersby/ The Minaret
At approximately 12:15 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 18, three University of Tampa students were robbed at gunpoint on the corner of North Boulevard and Ross Avenue as they walked back to campus from a party. The suspects have not yet been apprehended.
The students, Esteban Roman, Courtney Loftus and Dillon Maag, had walked to a house party on West Amelia Avenue Saturday night with a large group of friends.
“We looked up [the route] on my phone,” Roman, a sophomore transfer student from Aurora, Ill., said. “It was like 20 minutes away. We didn’t know what area we’d be walking through; we just decided, you know, we’ll save cab money and we’ll walk.”
The group made it to the party without any trouble, even though, as Roman noted, “The area we walked through was kind of sketchy.”
As it got later, the group separated with some deciding to leave early and some deciding to stay. By around midnight, Roman, his roommate Maag and their friend Loftus were ready to leave.
“We were deciding if we should cab. There were a lot of cabs parked in front of the house because there were a lot of UT students there,” Roman said. “We decided we’d walk; we walked there and nothing had happened, so we’d walk back.”
Roman was walking slightly ahead with Loftus, a freshman from Canton, Mass., and Maag, a sophomore transfer from Naperville, Ill., following closely behind. As the three were crossing Ross Avenue, Roman noticed something out of the corner of his eye.
Describing the area, he said, “There’s a palm tree and a telephone pole on the corner of Ross and North Boulevard. I saw the two men run behind the tree.”
The two men, both described by Roman as being African-American and between the ages of 19 and 23, came out from behind the tree as Roman, Loftus and Maag walked by.
“Since I was in front, one approached me, and the other approached [Courtney and Dillon] since they were kind of next to each other,” Roman said. “The one who approached me had a mask on and he had a gun pointed at me.”
According to Roman, the masked man told him to be quiet or he would shoot him. He asked Roman for his money, and held his gun on him until he gave up his wallet.
Roman continued to explain that the second man, who was not wearing a mask, approached Loftus and Maag and told them to give him their wallets. While Maag was getting his out of his pocket, the robber punched him in the side. The attacker then turned to Loftus and forcefully took her wallet, breaking the wallet’s strap she had wrapped around her wrist.
The two men ran to their car that was parked down the block on Ross and drove away. A passerby witnessing the suspects flee the scene pulled over and offered to help Roman, Maag and Loftus, taking them to a nearby gas station where they called the police.
After giving a statement to the police, Roman called his credit card company to put a hold on his cards that were stolen. He said they informed him that two of his cards had been used at a nearby 7-Eleven less than an hour after the robbery.
The detective on the case, Detective Jay Reese of the Tampa Police Department, was able to obtain video surveillance footage of one of the attackers using the cards at the 7-Eleven.
Reese is currently working on trying to identify the robbers. “When the man was attacking Dillon, I was making sure to notice every detail about him, from his earrings to the gray v-neck he was wearing,” Loftus said.
Reese hopes that more of Loftus’ descriptions can be used in identifying the two men.
“It’s a bad stretch of road where kids are walking back to UT,” Reese added. “Even if you are in a group, if someone has a gun, there’s no longer power in numbers.”
Dean of Students Stephanie Russel Holz was informed of the robbery early Sunday morning.
“As dean of students, student safety is my number one concern,” she said. “When instances like this happen, I always think what could have been done to avoid this situation.”
After Holz learned of the incident, a Global Message was sent out from the Office of Operations and Planning to provide safety reminders regarding off-campus activity.
Although Holz said that the global message went to students as well as faculty and staff, no students who have been interviewed reported receiving that e-mail.
Loftus hopes that UT will use this situation as an incentive to take the time to warn students about the dangerous areas around campus.
“I am trying to talk with the school to make a pamphlet or handout that will give students an awareness about the area around them- telling them what places are safe to walk in daylight and when they should really take a cab,” she said.
Holz said that the University of Tampa plans on publishing a safety pamphlet or flier for students, but until then, she shared words of advice for students to avoid dangerous situations.
“Don’t walk off campus alone or even in a group,” she said. “Take cabs if you are going off-campus, and if an area looks like it might not be safe, don’t go there.”
“It’s not worth walking to save three bucks on a cab,” Roman said. “I had a gun pointed at me and I lost 50 bucks plus everything that was in my wallet. It’s just not worth it.”
Anyone with information on the attackers can call Detective Jay Reese with the District III Latent Investigative Squad of the Tampa Police Department at (813) 242-3840.
Channing Hailey can be reached at channinghl1@gmail.com
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Well, Glory be to God that Esteban Roman and the others are alright!!! So many of us like to dwell on the negative and things that could have been different, but who thanked God for life today? It could of been much worse. Let’s pray and cover our school, and students, daily.
Dean Holz really is worthless.
@ new in town:
Good points. UT is really starting to drop the ball on a lot of issues lately. The “safe” and “unsafe” zone idea is a good one. They should, at the very least, bring this type of thing up in the orientation meetings. However, I think that they are afraid it will start to decrease their numbers(not a bad thing). Lately, the school is more worried about money than it is with the comfort, security, and safety of the students.
There are some errors in this article:
1. The girl took a taxi to the party with other people and only stayed an hour. Wanted to leave and these two guys were going back so she thought she was safe with them (safety in numbers). She didn’t even realize the area she was in was unsafe because she is new from out of state and took a taxi there. The guys suggested walking home. She thought she was safe
2. All 3 of them are from out of state and new to the area. The school does not designate “safe” areas or “unsafe areas” off campus. They need to do a better job educating the students.
3. None of them realized that this was a bad area and numerous people had been robbed and even a student killed 2 years before. Education by the school is key. Also both U Tampa and the Tampa police need to clean up this area and keep people safe.
4. Why havent the suspects been caught? They used the credit cards and video was made available to the public!
I cannot tell you how many times I heard someone tell me “oh don’t walk around here it’s not that safe” whether it was another student or a member of faculty but when people say this to you and you are new to UT or you get used to the area, it doesn’t really hit you until something bad happens. Multiple incidents have happened just like this and even worse and people’s lives have been lost so maybe UT needs to make an even bigger deal about this issue and put more emphasis on decision making when it comes to getting home safely. I agree that these students made a very careless decision especially since they had seen the area on their way there but let’s face it, most people this age think they are invincible. I agree that every Gateways class should be focusing on this topic along with RAs and every professor should be notified and make sure students know whats going on.
Why on Earth they didn’t take a $3 cab ride back to campus baffles me. Wtf – you have $50 in your wallet and you can’t splurge on $3? Sometimes I really can’t feel sympathetic would stuff like this happens. If they’re too careless to care for their own safety, why the hell should I care? Especially since we’ve lost so many good kids in the previous years from robberies.
Just because you are in a cab, does not make you safe. Everyone is responsible for their own protection.
why students will not pay $3 per person for a cab, i will never understand. also there is the “green fleet” that is always sitting in front of vaughn that will give you a free ride within a 5 mile radius. stop walking north of campus!!!
That is why it should be legal to carry a firearm on campus. I’m in Tampa, St.Petersberg, Largo, Clear Water area alot. Please don’t try to rob me using a firearm or knife. You may not like the result!
Another reason why we should allow students to lawfully conceal carry on campuses.
Hmmm… maybe it’s time for another student group to organize. Get someone to donate a van or something. Have people on standby willing to give people rides if they need them and call. Just takes a few peeps to make a difference. I am surprised there isn’t already a serious remedy in place. If most people new how dangerous it was around UT, they would probably look at another school to send their kids to.
Ughhhhhhhhhhh Tampaaaaaaaaa soooo ghetto:P
They should have a system set up so students within 5 miles of campus can call for a free ride!
Gateways should be teaching this to freshmen (community awareness type thing). Emails and brochures are junk mail in reality to these kids.
That’s a good idea Krystal. Obviously not everyone knows about them. Maybe there needs to be some kind of drive to get the info out. ????
Our school offers cards for cabs. They’re sort of like prepaid cards and you can only use them for cab fees. There’s always options besides walking in the dark in an unfamiliar and potentially dangerous area. If you have $50 in your wallet, $9 total to arrive safely is not a big deal, of course in hindsight. Check out the card program, they’re available in the bookstore and you fill them up and use them like a regular debit card.
Maybe instead of T-shirts they can give out guns at the next volleyball or soccer game.
There has got to be a safer way to get students back. When I was in the military, we had a program called “Arrive Alive”. You were given a card to give to a cab, the guy on watch paid the driver, and you paid the watch back in the next couple of days. I don’t know if there is anything like this in effect right now around campus, but something needs to be done.
To walk any where in Tampa at night vs taking a $3 cab ride should be a no-brainer. Saving money is not worth it when it means saving your life. I graduated May ’10 and we lost Ryan and Erik to scumbags who could care less about anyone else other than themselves.
UT students, you need to use your common sense and be careful!
That sucks. They didn’t handle that one too well, it seems. I don’t walk anywhere in Tampa anymore without “protection”. The police don’t seem to really care about doing anything that won’t bring in money. I agree, they hand out plenty of tickets. You would think that an area like campus would have a higher concentration of police patrolling it, but that costs money.
They will never find these guys unless they come forward for some reason. Tampa Police will do nothing except pay lip service. I have had two robberies of my wallet in Tampa and nothing was ever done. I even had the license of one of the perpetrators because they were trying to cash a blank check that was in my wallet at an Amscott and the personnel there kept the license and contacted me. The person fled, but the Tampa Police did nothing. Did not even go to the address on the license. They are too busy handing out traffic tickets in order to generate revenue. That is why there is so much crime in Tampa.
Agreed. Take a cab, Tampa is not a safe place to walk around.
That was like a block from where Ryan got shot two years ago. It’s a shame. No one should ever walk towards that area of Tampa. Hope they find these assholes and they get what they deserve.