An MSU student was threatened by a masked man armed with a gun in a robbery attempt early Monday morning, police said.
The incident occurred at about 1 a.m. on a walking path east of Jenison Field House, the police report stated.
MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said the 19-year-old male student was walking to his residence hall when a man wearing a ski mask, dressed in all black, approached him, pointed a gun at his face and demanded money.
"This is something that's really out of the ordinary for the campus," McGlothian-Taylor said. "I don't think we've had a lot of incidents where we've had someone wearing a ski mask."
The man fled the scene when he saw a police car drive by, McGlothian-Taylor said. He did not get any money from the student.
After the man left, the student did not make contact with the officer that had driven by the scene, and he did not report the attack until almost 9 p.m. that day, McGlothian-Taylor said.
"It's important when something like this happens that individuals flag down the police or at least call us immediately," she said. "We can have officers check the area to make certain that the person doesn't get away."
McGlothian-Taylor said the student might have been too distressed or scared to contact police right away.
"Not a whole lot can be done when it's reported so late," she said. "The perfect time to have reported this would have been right after this occurred."
Police are still searching for the attacker, who is described as a man, approximately 6 feet 2 inches tall weighing about 190 pounds. The student said he saw the man run toward Spartan Stadium.
McGlothian-Taylor said she doesn't believe Monday's incident is connected to a string of robberies that occurred on campus and in the city during the fall.
On campus in October, a teenager threatened two MSU students with an empty glass bottle while demanding money outside the Brody Complex.
A month later, a student was robbed at knifepoint as he walked along the Red Cedar River trail near Shaw Hall.
The robberies continued in East Lansing, as two female students were separately approached by armed men demanding their belongings. In November, a student was held at gunpoint in her East Lansing apartment.
Sarah McEvilly can be reached at mcevilly@msu.edu.
