Police release CCTV image of suspect, investigation ongoing
Leslie Armstrong
Arts Editor
@Peachcrate
Toronto police are investigating a sexual assault on campus last Thursday.
The 22-year-old victim was standing outside her classroom in 122 Accolade East at the time of the incident, around 5:30 p.m on March 8. The suspect approached and made conversation with her before assaulting her. Police say the suspect fled down the hallway after the assault. The complainant contacted security around 7:30 p.m. and asked to report the assault to Toronto police.
The police have since issued a picture from a surveillance camera of the suspect. A press release describes the suspect as having “a brown complexion, 5’5”, with a thin build, 140 lbs., with short black hair,” and wearing “a dark winter jacket, dark pants, and had a black backpack.”
Janice Walls of York media says that despite the incident, York is making its best effort to instate preventative measures.
“To be fair, what happens at York is we tell the community what’s going on,” she says. “We have safety bulletins when something happens; not every university does that. We do that in an effort to be open and above board about what’s going on, and so that people take safety seriously and know we’re all thinking about it.”
And, she says, York’s rates of crimes against persons—like sexual assault and robbery—are declining.
“[From 2010-2011 to 2009-2010], you get a 15 per cent drop in crimes against persons,” she says.
While it’s true that the rates went down from one year to the next, a closer analysis tells a different story. Crimes against the person have indeed been trending downwards for the last five years, but sexual assaults show almost no pattern at all. When taken as a whole, sexual offences have actually been trending upwards, albeit not to a statistically significant degree.
The investigation is ongoing.
If you have any information about this incident, please contact Toronto Police Service directly at 416.808.2222 or York Security at 416.736.5333.
