2nd Student Reports Attack Outside Lamont

For the second time in the past two months, a Harvard student has reported an attempted armed robbery just outside Lamont Library's front entrance.

The undergraduate waited until last Friday--about two weeks after the alleged attack--to tell police. His decision to make the report was apparently prompted by a University police notice of a Oct. 26 robbery in the same spot.

In the new case, the student's memory is hazy, police said. He could not even remember the exact time or place of the incident.

"We took a report, but we don't have any facts," said Sgt. Richard W. Mederos, head of the Harvard police criminal investigations department.

He told detectives he was approached by a man who, while holding an unidentified weapon in his hand, demanded the student's backpack, said Harvard police spokesperson Peggy S. McNamara. The student walked briskly away before the suspect could get any closer.

The student told police that he did not get a good look at his attacker, but nevertheless described the suspect as a dark-haired man in his late 20s, about 6-feet tall and of medium build. The suspect was wearing a winter hat and a denim jacket.

Despite the proximity to last month's robbery, detectives have been unable to make a connection between this most recent report and any other incidents in the area, Mederos said.

In the Oct. 26 robbery, which occurred at 3:50 p.m., a student at the Graduate School of Education was robbed at knife-point by two assailants on Quincy Street, next to the library. The attackers fled with $90 in cash and several credit cards.

The student waited several hours to call police, but eventually provided a description of two suspects.

One was a male, 20 to 25 years old, 5'10" to 6' tall, with brown, bushy or wind-blown hair. The other was described as a Latino male, also 20 to 25 years old, 5'10", with close-cut, well-groomed black hair and wearing a dirty blue shirt.

Only three days before that attack, another Harvard student had reported being robbed of $5 at knife-point. He said the attackers were two men who, in the early morning hours, approached his window in D entry of Wigglesworth Hall

In the Oct. 26 robbery, which occurred at 3:50 p.m., a student at the Graduate School of Education was robbed at knife-point by two assailants on Quincy Street, next to the library. The attackers fled with $90 in cash and several credit cards.

The student waited several hours to call police, but eventually provided a description of two suspects.

One was a male, 20 to 25 years old, 5'10" to 6' tall, with brown, bushy or wind-blown hair. The other was described as a Latino male, also 20 to 25 years old, 5'10", with close-cut, well-groomed black hair and wearing a dirty blue shirt.

Only three days before that attack, another Harvard student had reported being robbed of $5 at knife-point. He said the attackers were two men who, in the early morning hours, approached his window in D entry of Wigglesworth Hall