PAGE 3: Talking with Teachers event had zero student attendance
PAGE 14: Sen. Bernie Sanders kicks off 2020 campaign at Navy Pier
PAGE 8: Jada Yuan dishes on a year of traveling across the globe PAGE 11: COMMENTARY: Diet changes can increase sustainability Volume 54, Issue 22
March 11, 2019
Police: Student made up attack
ColumbiaChronicle.com » KATHERINE SAVAGE, KACI WATT & ALEXANDRA YETTER
STAFF REPORTERS
SEE ATTACK, PAGE 3
AFTER REPORTS THAT a female Columbia student was stabbed in Grant Park late in the night on March 6, police say the woman confessed she faked the incident. A March 7 Crime Advisory alert from the college reported a 23-year-old female had been in Grant Park “late Wednesday night” when she was robbed by a “heavyset black male, six feet tall, between 25–30 years of age, with short hair, wearing a green puffy jacket and blue jeans.” She said she told the perpetrator she had no money and handed over her debit card. She told Chicago police the perpetrator then stabbed her three times and fled at around 9:50 p.m. The woman walked to 7-Eleven, 535 S. State St., and asked an employee to call the police. According to the Crime Advisory, she was then taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in stable condition and treated for non life-threatening injuries. She spoke with her mother, and Columbia personnel were with her at the hospital. CPD Public Relations Coordinator Howard Ludwig said after a review of surveillance footage, the incident was unfounded and did not occur as reported. The Chicago Tribune reported March 7 the student later admitted to CPD officers the attack never took place. Ludwig told The Chronicle charges for falsifying a police report are possible. Charges had not been filed as of press time. Columbia’s Vice President of Strategic Marketing and Communications Mark Rosati declined to comment. The 7-Eleven employee on shift with a co-worker said it was around 10:45 p.m. when the student came into the store. He was not surprised she had faked the attack because of the oddly shaped pattern of brightly-colored blood on her gray leggings and the way she stood covering her abdomen with her jacket, he said. The employee said she was calm and “didn’t seem traumatized.” He identified her as a tall, Caucasian woman with light hair. He said police sounded “hesitant upon arrival” and questioned her for about 15 minutes before paramedics put her on a stretcher, on which she sat upright.
» IGNACIO CALDERON/CHRONICLE