7. Somehow the “no guns” policy of Virginia Commonwealth University
failed to
prevent an armed robbery on campus. It succeeded, however, in requiring a
brave
soul who intervened to do so empty-handed.
http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/more/MGBLNS6OEFD.html

May 07, 2003
Armed man robs textbook buyers at VCU

While about a dozen VCU students stood in line yesterday to sell their
used
textbooks at The Virginia Book Co. Inc.’s West Main Street tent, a man
armed
with a pistol walked up and robbed the book buyers.

“I really want this guy caught,” said Ernest A. Mooney Jr., owner of the
book
company, whose store is a few blocks away at 900 W. Franklin St. Mooney
said he
has set up his textbook tent for several years during exam week at
Virginia
Commonwealth University.

About 2:30 p.m., Mooney’s wife and a friend were manning the tent in the
heart
of the VCU academic campus when the gunman, armed with a .45-caliber
pistol,
pointed the gun at Mooney’s wife and demanded money.

The gunman fled on foot, eluding Mooney’s friend, who chased him for a few
blocks before losing sight of him near Grove Avenue and Harrison Street.

Witnesses described the gunman as a light-skinned black man, roughly
5-foot-10,
about 30 years old with a scruffy beard. He was wearing a Virginia
Tech baseball
cap, a reddish shirt and jeans.

Mooney would not say precisely how much the robber escaped with, only that
it
was more than $1,000.

“The most important thing is that nobody got hurt,” Mooney said.
***
- Bill
Wasson