Armed Robbery At Pine Manor College: Brookline Police

BROOKLINE, MA — A student was held up by a man with a gun and was forced to give his cell phone to the man, he told police. Now Brookline police are looking for two men who are believed to have shot into the air as the student ran away from them.

According to Brookline Police around 11:13 p.m. Sept. 14, a young man was in the East Village parking lot at Pine Manor College on the phone when two guys he said he didn't know walked up to him.

One of the men asked him if he had a minute to speak to him, when the student told him he didn't because he was on the phone, that man pulled up his sweatshirt and showed he had what looked like a black semi-automatic pistol with a white slide tucked into his waste band and asked for the phone.

The student handed over the phone and the man had the student unlock the phone by entering a password. At that point that same man, who the student later described as a skinny black man in his 20s around 6'4 with a goatee and wearing a light gray hooded sweatshirt, and exercise pants asked him to hand over everything he had. The student only had his student ID on him and handed that over and pulled out his pockets to show he didn't have anything else on him.

The man with the gun then told him to turn around, according to police. The student did and then started running toward the East Village common area when he heard what he told police sounded like a air soft gun or a BB gun going off, though he told police the gun remained in the man's waste band throughout the interaction when he was facing him.

The student described the second guy as a skinny dark skinned black man in his 20s, around 6'2" tall, and possibly as gray or black hooded sweatshirt. Both had the hoods pulled over their heads.

Officials at Pine Manor are working with the police throughout the investigation.

"This was a random act, and we're very saddened it happened, we've extended to students any type of support they feel they needed. But what we really want to do is get ahead of the ball. It's so easy to be isolated but as the world changes we need to strengthen community connections more and more," said Pine Manor College President Tom O'Reilly who added "The police have been terrific."

The college has also started a community conversation about safety and are bringing together a group of public safety officials, from Brookline and Newton Police to other officials, to build that conversation with the campus and surrounding community.

"It's something we think the entire community needs these days," said O'Reilly.

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File Photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch Staff