By Sarah Huffman

On Friday, March 1, a vehicle being pursued by officers from the NYPD’s 52nd Precinct drove onto the Fordham campus at the Southern Boulevard entrance. Officers took the three men in the car into custody shortly after, and no one was injured.

The 52nd precinct patrol officers observed a vehicle in the vicinity of a known drug location. When they approached the vehicle, the vehicle fled the scene and committed several traffic infractions.

NYPD officers followed the vehicle and unsuccessfully attempted to pull it over. During the process, the vehicle turned onto Fordham’s campus with police in pursuit.

“Once it came onto campus the security officer assigned to the main entrance alerted us over the radio what was occuring,” said Public Safety Supervisor Micheal McGinn. “At that point, the supervisors, patrol vehicles, as well as the office staff here, responded out in the field to the location.

A few minutes later we found out the vehicle had been abandoned at the Lalande Circle and one of the occupants was apprehended by one of the officers at the scene.”

McGinn said the other two men in the vehicle fled towards Martyrs Lawn. Public Safety officers assisted NYPD officers with a search of the area and discovered one of the individuals in the Lalande lounge and the other in front of Martyrs Court Lalande.

Both individuals were taken into custody without further incident, and they were turned over to the NYPD who then removed them and the vehicle from campus.

During the course of these events, an emergency text was sent out to members of the community alerting them about the situation. It said, “RH campus NYPD in pursuit of two males in vicinity of Martyrs Court, one male bald/ one male in camouflage.”

Once the situation was resolved, another text was sent out alerting the community that it was safe. The text said, “NYPD has apprehended all males at the RH campus. No further safety concern.”

The Department of Public Safety also sent an email informing the University community about the situation. The email said the three suspects were captured by Public Safety Supervisors and handed over to the NYPD. It also reported that the NYPD recovered two knives and 20 bags of heroin from the suspects and that Public Safety supervisors searched the area to ensure no contraband was dropped on campus.

Some students in the area saw the events happen. Camryn Pecyno, GSB ’22, lives in Martyrs Court Goupil and witnessed the incident.

“When I arrived at Martyrs, there were multiple NYPD vehicles surrounding a navy or black Audi,” she said. “As I was walking into the building, Public Safety was walking out with one of the suspects. NYPD patted him down, then handcuffed him. Then the second suspect was brought over to the Audi where he was also patted down and put into the back of the squad car.”

There was also a tour group standing in Lalande Circle at the time of the incident. A video was posted on Barstool of the incident that made fun of the fact that the arrest occurred around prospective students.

The video zooms in on one of the men being arrested on the steps in front of Alumni Court South and then pans over to the tour group near them.

The video is captioned saying “Not the best look to be preaching about how safe Fordham is to a tour of incoming freshmen with this going on in the background.”

McGinn said Public Safety spoke with admissions afterwards and told the people on the tour that they were more than welcome to come speak with Public Safety or that they would come speak with them.

“I would think they saw how quickly it was resolved and the fact that the situation was taken under control give me a good sense of security,” said McGinn. “This is the safest 90 acres you’re gonna find in the Bronx. We put a tremendous amount of resources and effort into making sure it stays safe on and off campus.”

McGinn said the Department of Public Safety was pleased with how the whole situation played out.

“Everything went very very well from our perspective,” said McGinn. “There were no injuries, no one got hurt. Public Safety responded to their jobs the way they were supposed to and the way they were trained to. We were very satisfied with the response and the fact that they were taken into custody so quickly.”

McGinn said that no one should be concerned and that their statistics, security presence and how they operate should alleviate any present fears.