COLUMBIA — The city has seen an increase in robberies over the past week, with five reported since Sept. 17. That number is about twice as high as the average for the first six months of 2008, which is just over two robberies per week.
Just past midnight on Sept. 18 an MU student was robbed between Engineering Building East and Switzler Hall on Francis Quadrangle. Later that morning, in an unrelated incident, a man walking down Towne Drive was robbed after leaving a convenience store.
A pizza delivery driver was robbed by two men on the 1200 block of Elleta Boulevard the night of Sept. 19.
During the early-morning hours of Sept. 21, a man robbed the Fast Lane 66 gas station at 1013 West Blvd. Later that evening, Boone County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a reported robbery on the 6000 block of North Gregory Drive.
On the night of Sept. 17, a woman delivering a pizza in the Sunset Trailer Park was the victim of an attempted robbery by five or six males.
Police have arrested suspects in only one of the robberies in the past week. Three men were arrested by MU police officers in connection with the campus robbery. Demetrius O. Edwards, 18, Stafford D. Lambert, 19, and Michael J. Zellmann, 21, all face second-degree robbery charges.
The other five incidents remain unsolved and police are still looking for the suspects.
None of the victims of the six robberies were seriously injured in the incidents.
In a recent interview, Capt. Zim Schwartze of the Columbia Police Department talked about possible causes for spikes in crime.
“There are certain folks who are very prolific in certain crimes,” Schwartze said. “When we have certain people out on the street they can hit us, just one or two people or little small groups, and it can make a dramatic increase on various crimes.”