The suspect connected to the armed robbery at BP gas station early Wednesday morning has not yet been apprehended.
An armed robbery occurred at the BP gas station at the corner of Main Street and Ninth Street, according to a Duke Alert sent at 2:36 a.m. The suspect’s vehicle was found wrecked on Anderson Street, and a police dog was tracking the suspect who was reported to be moving toward Duke University Road.
Emergency coordinator Kyle Cavanaugh said it is the University’s “understanding” that the suspect has not yet been apprehended, though he has had no updates from the Durham police department throughout the day.
Although an alert was not required given the criteria of the Clery Act, Cavanaugh noted that the decision was made to send the alert so students would not go enter the area. He attributed the lack of information in the text sent to students as due to the restrictions of text messaging in general.
“A text has a fairly tight set of characters that can be placed in there,” Cavanaugh said. “The issue was really to avoid the area at that time.”
Security officers and Duke Police guarded the area on Campus Drive and Anderson Street on a rotating basis throughout the night, Cavanaugh said.
Photographs of the suspect fleeing led Duke police to believe he was headed off campus last night, rather than toward Central Campus’ Anderson apartments, Cavanaugh added.
Five police cars were lined up on Anderson Street as of approximately 2:45 a.m. Duke Police officers declined to comment on the case, stating that it is a Durham case. An empty black Dodge SUV was also present on Anderson Street.
The Duke Alert described the suspect as a black male in his 40s with a beard, wearing all black.
“There is police activity in this area,” the Duke Alert read. “Avoid this area and report any suspicious activity.”
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