A suspect is still at large after attacking a female student in the second floor women’s bathroom in Xavier Hall on April 12 at around 7 p.m. Though an alert was sent to the Saint Louis University community the next day, the victim said that it downplays how severe the assault actually was.
The victim was washing her hands at the sink when a man emerged from a stall behind her dressed in maroon robes and a hat with a veil obscuring his face. The man allegedly grabbed her by the neck and threw her on the ground. Upon the victim’s screams, the man ran out of the bathroom.
This is the information contained in the email sent to the SLU community by Department of Public Safety, which was sent April 13 at 2:50 p.m. Director of Public Safety Mike Lauer said the delay in notifying students was due to the fact that initial investigations were done both the evening of April 12 and day of April 13, and that they had re-interviewed the victim and wanted to make sure their facts were straight before sending out the alert.
What wasn’t included in the email, though, was that, according to a report by KSDK and a close friend of the victim, after the suspect knocked her to the ground, he allegedly told her not to make any noise or tell anyone or he’d kill her.
In an email statement, the victim said she was still in shock over what had transpired.
“I want to make sure people know this was a brutal and life-threatening attack,” she said. “The email DPS sent out significantly downplays the severity of what happened to me on Monday evening.”
A call to Lauer Wednesday evening for comment about this new development was not returned.
“There was a significant struggle and thankfully I was able to react and get myself out of the situation,” she said. “The most important thing is I am safe, but I want everyone in the SLU community to be aware of this and take their own safety very seriously. This cannot happen to anyone else.”
One of the victim’s close friends, as mentioned earlier in the article, was working down the hall in the Xavier Media Collaboration Center at the time of the incident. She said the incident “really hit home” since she often works in Xavier at times when it seems like no one else is around.
“Personally, I’ve never been afraid to be at school, but these few days have been really tense,” she said.
She said it was scary to think that you could be in a school building and yet have to be worrying about attacks like this.
The official police report describes the suspect as being a male, approximately 5 foot, 8 inches, and about 140 pounds. Investigations are still ongoing.
