UPDATE: Group Commits Assault, Violent Robbery on VCU’s Main Campus

Police were searching today for a group of about 15 young men and women believed to have committed an assault and a violent robbery in rapid succession on Virginia Commonwealth University’s main academic campus in downtown Richmond.

Neither victim was seriously injured in the two attacks, which occurred along Shafer Street on the Monroe Park campus about 2:55 a.m.

VCU and Richmond police described the assailants as a group of 15 black males between the ages of 17 and 22.

The first victim, who is not a VCU student, reported being punched without provocation by a member of the group while getting out of a vehicle at Shafer and West Grace streets.

Moments later, the group encountered the second victim, a VCU student, at Shafer and West Franklin streets. The student told police one member of the group made a comment about his boots before the victim was punched in the back of the head and knocked to the ground.

Once on the ground, the victim was told by one of the assailants, “Give me everything you’ve got.”  The victim was punched again in the neck and a pack of cigarettes was stolen from his pants pocket, police said.

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