A West Chester University student’s screams led her friend to the very place she was being raped, choked and robbed.
The victim was attacked during her walk home from an off-campus party around 2 a.m. Friday. A man she didn’t know came up to her inside the New Street Parking Garage and asked her to perform oral sex on him. When she refused, he pushed her down on the concrete and forced her into the act. She was punched, choked, shoved into a parked car and raped, the woman told police.
About half an hour later, another student came into the parking lot to get her car, heard screaming and recognized her friend, half naked, being held down now on the hood of a car and yelling at a man, “Can I have my phone back?!”
The friend shouted at the guy, “What are you doing?”
He took off running with the victim’s phone and wallet.
Police arrested West Chester student Eaddy Austin later that same day and charged him with multiple sex and assault-related crimes.
The second, unrelated assault took place Saturday in a residential facility. Police are searching for that attacker, who is not a student.
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"Our hearts go out to the victims of these heinous crimes," said Interim President for the school, Dr. Christopher Fiorentino, in a letter to the school's community.
Students were encouraged to take advantage of the school's counseling services and to understand how the Green Dot Bystander Intervention Program works. The campuswide initiative urges students to be proactive anytime they see or suspect "power-based personal violence."
