More Rowan patrols after gunpoint robberies

Rowan University has increased its police presence on campus after three men robbed two students at gunpoint in separate attacks shortly before 1 a.m. Tuesday.

Authorities said they believed the robberies were related. Glassboro police are also investigating a Monday night holdup in which two men robbed a driver for a Chinese takeout at gunpoint after the driver dropped off an order at the borough-owned Ellis Manor housing complex.

Glassboro Police Chief Alex Fanfarillo said yesterday that he believed that robbery was connected to Tuesday's attacks, although he cautioned there was no substantial supporting evidence at this point.

Joe Cardona, a Rowan spokesman, said yesterday that there was always a police presence on campus as part of the university's public-safety initiatives.

"The night of the robberies we had 18 public-safety officers on duty," he said. "Just like anything else, we are looking at deployment issues as well as policies and procedures, and we will make adjustments as they seem necessary."

At 12:45 a.m. Tuesday, three men, all wearing dark clothing and hooded sweatshirts, approached three freshmen walking through a maintenance yard behind a facilities building on campus.

"We believe the students were followed through the yard," Cardona said. "That is not a normal place to be."

A 19-year-old male student whose name was not released was punched and kicked in the mouth, but declined medical treatment.

Ten minutes later, three men assaulted and robbed Michael C. Phelan, a 25-year-old student from Glassboro, outside the off-campus Crossings Apartment complex on Mullica Hill Road, less than a mile away.

In both cases, the students' wallets and cell phones were taken. The robbers escaped in a tan sedan.

Both students are doing well, Cardona said. The assailants' descriptions were the same in both Rowan crimes: 5-foot-11 to 6-2 and 180 to 200 pounds.

Rowan has outreach programs if students need counseling or other safety-related services, Cardona said, and the university is "constantly warning students on what to do and what not to do."

The Crossings Apartments are about two blocks from where Rowan student Donald Farrell, 19, of Boonton, N.J., was beaten to death during a robbery in October 2007. Farrell, who was attacked in a convenience-store parking lot on Route 322, died the next day. No one has been arrested.

Police have not made any link between the recent robberies and the assault on Farrell, Fanfarillo said, but "I would imagine the detective division is looking into that as far as a possibility."

Fanfarillo said that the malicious intent of the latest robbers was evident, and that he had increased patrols.

"Students are an easy target," he said. "In my mind as chief of police, this incident goes beyond a robbery. I want to determine why this location was chosen, how it occurred there, and the intent of the robbers."

One major difference between the recent robberies and Farrell's death is that "there was no use of a weapon with Farrell other than fists and feet," said Bernie Weisenfeld, spokesman for the Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office. "He was punched and kicked. It wasn't a holdup. It was an assault that resulted in his death."

Anyone with information is asked to call Glassboro police at 856-881-1500 or campus police at 856-256-4922.