A University of Minnesota student was robbed Saturday evening after he was attacked by three suspects near 15th Avenue Southeast, according to a University police report.
The robbery was the fourth to occur near campus over the past two weekends, according to University police reports.
The 19-year-old victim, who preferred not to be named, said he was walking home from the Dinkytown McDonald’s around 5 p.m. when he noticed the suspects following him. He said one of the suspects, a 16-year-old male, came up from behind and began hitting him.
“He started hitting me, and I began to fight back,” the victim said.
While he and the suspect were wrestling on the ground, the victim said the other two suspects, both female, joined the fight and took his cellphone.
Police nearby noticed the fight between the victim and the suspects and arrived on the scene to break it up, the victim said. But once they realized the suspects were attempting to rob the victim, they arrested the male suspect at the scene.
The two female suspects fled the scene with the victim’s cellphone but were caught a few minutes later, the victim said. Police found his cellphone in a bush near 15th Avenue, he said.
The victim said he wasn’t seriously injured, although he received medical treatment at the scene. He added that he was OK mentally but described the experience as “terrible.”
Two of the three suspects were juveniles, according to the police report, and all were arrested on suspicion of felony robbery of a person.
But the victim said he was notified by University police that the two female suspects were released Tuesday.
The victim said he was “very, very angry” about the decision to release the suspects.
“That’s terrible,” he said. “I don’t want people like that walking around the streets.”