By Erin Engelson

Boston Police cruisers lined Columbus Avenue Halloween evening as costumed children and their mothers filtered by wondering what caused all the commotion.

“Some kid got shot,” an onlooker said, standing in front of Bob’s Southern Bistro at the corner of Columbus Avenue and Northampton Street.

The Halloween shooting marked the third to take place this semester in the Roxbury section of Northeastern’s campus, leaving many of the students who inhabit the area talking about the frequent violence.

“I was sitting in my room, which faces Columbus Avenue. I heard like five to seven gunshots really fast in a row,” said Jen Strout, a sophomore criminal justice major who lives in an off-campus apartment at the corner of Columbus and Massachusetts Avenue.

“I saw like five cop cars, cops walking all around,” she said. “One cop was talking to a guy … and told him to get on the ground. Then an ambulance comes up and they threw the guy on a stretcher and took him away.”

Police officers taped off a portion of the street and questioned people on Columbus Avenue, between New York Pizza and Bob’s, she said.

One of her roommates, who had just returned from the supermarket, was “freaking out” when Strout told her what had happened.

“It was crazy,” Strout said.

The incident followed two other shootings that took place in September and October around Ruggles Station, which borders the Northeastern campus.

On Sept. 27, a local 19-year-old man was shot near the bus docks at Ruggles Station, just a few blocks from where the Halloween shooting happened. A number of residence halls and off-campus apartments are situated between the two points.

Unlike the Halloween shooting, this one happened in broad daylight. The time of day and proximity to two residence halls – 780 Columbus Ave. and 10 Coventry St. – caught middler criminal justice major Gina Testa by surprise.

“We had the windows open because it was nice out,” said Testa, a Coventry resident. “I hear something that sounds like gunshots and then two seconds later I look out the window to the NUPD. All the officers jumped into their cruisers and peeled out of the parking lot. Then we heard the sirens.”

That shooting, like the Halloween shooting, was on Strout’s mind.

“Another one of my roommates was in Ruggles that day. She said she went up the stairs, heard gunshots, looked down and saw the guy laying there bleeding. It’s scary,” Strout said.

The violence, however, has not been confined to Columbus Avenue.

The most recent incident of violent crime in the Northeastern neighborhood happened Nov. 4, when an elderly woman residing at the corner of Huntington Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue was beaten and stabbed to death.

Spotlighting crime

Though no Northeastern students were involved in the Nov. 4 incident, the gruesome nature of the crime scared the community and propelled crime into the spotlight of both students’ minds and the local news.

One of the top local stories of the past two weeks involved both crime and Northeastern University.

In January 1990, Northeastern sophomore Mark Belmore was fatally stabbed between Ruggles and Coventry Street on Columbus Avenue. His convicted killer, 35-year-old Larry Robinson, is now up for parole and being represented by a Northeastern law student.

This case has refocused attention on Northeastern and crime in the neighborhood surrounding the campus, including city politicians.

This case is one of several to refocus attention on crime in Boston’s neighborhoods, including that of city politicians. In the mayoral race, re-elected Mayor Thomas Menino faced criticism about the fact that crime in the city is on the rise.

In the midst of the mayoral race, The Boston Globe published a front-page article entitled “Shootings in Hub rise dramatically.” The article stated the number of shootings in Boston has increased significantly over the last three years. It listed the South End and Roxbury as two of the areas in which shootings increased the most.

That fact has resonated with Northeastern students like Greg Richardson, a sophomore finance major.

“There seems to be more serious crime over on the Columbus side of campus, like what happened at Ruggles. It’s not just robberies,” Richardson said.

Through Oct. 23, shootings in Boston are up 77 percent from 2002 and 28 percent from 2004. At this point in 2002, there were 158 shootings in the city. Through the same date this year, there have been 279, according to Boston Police figures. Shootings can be classified as either homicides or non-fatal shootings.

According to Boston Police, among the neighborhoods with increases in shootings are both Roxbury and the South End.

Students living on the Columbus Avenue side of campus are technically Roxbury residents, while the rest of the campus is in the South End and the Fenway/Symphony neighborhood.

The statistical increase in crime in these neighborhoods could explain the fact that some students are worrying about it more this year than in the past.

“I do hear about crime more than last year – like that stabbing on Huntington,” Strout said. “My roommate, who is a senior, never heard gunshots in her four years here and now she has heard [gunshots twice] in less than two weeks.”

New safety concerns

During her mayoral campaign City Councilor Maura Hennigan tried to skewer Mayor Menino on the fact that crime is on the rise. Though she lost the election, the statistics do show an increase in the crime rate.

The type of crime that is on the rise, however, is not generally the crime of which Northeastern students are victims.

“Students are rarely victims of violent crime. These crimes are seldom random,” said Jim Ferrier, associate director of public safety. “They’re generally between people who know each other, and usually youths are involved.”

Though the recent shootings in the campus neighborhood indicate a “disturbing increase in youth violence,” Ferrier said students should not feel they should change their lives because of the incidents.

The violent acts in the Northeastern neighborhood over the past several months should not leave students panicked either, Ferrier said.

“We have actually had a number of cases where callers have reported shots fired with no shots actually fired,” he said.

The NUPD is located in Columbus Place, across from Carter Park on Columbus Avenue. Because their building is in close proximity to Davenport Commons, 780 Columbus Ave. and 10 Coventry St., it eases the fears of some Columbus Avenue residents.

“We patrol the Columbus Avenue area with great frequency. We think that the visibility factor is a deterrent to crime,” Ferrier said.

Students like Richardson and sophomore Ariel Goebel see things differently.

“I think that the NUPD needs to care more about the shootings and less about busting parties,” said Goebel, a behavioral neuroscience major.

Richardson agrees with her.

“It does seem like they focus more on underage drinking and breaking up parties than the actual safety of the students,” he said.

Though that sentiment isn’t new, Ferrier said the matter is ultimately a question of jurisdiction.

“All these violent incidents happened on city streets. The bad guys have learned to move themselves two or three blocks away from campus,” he said. “That way, all they have to worry about is the Boston Police. We base our jurisdiction on geography.”

While students living on campus have access to NUPD services including escorts and public safety officers, those living in off-campus apartments, like Strout, must go it alone.

“I work at Economy Hardware and I always have a guy friend come and get me after work to walk me home,” she said. “After the shooting, it made me that much more nervous walking around this neighborhood at night.”

Other students such as Goebel said they feel safe walking around at night, just as long as they use common sense.

“I feel fine walking home late. Half of it is really just common sense – I’m not going to walk into a sketchy situation at 3:30 in the morning. That’s just stupid,” she said.

Safer on the streets?

While shootings tend to make people fear for their own safety, police say, what many students don’t realize is they are more likely to be victimized by a fellow student, said Boston Police Sgt. Kevin Power.

“In the Northeastern neighborhood, the crime we encounter the most is robbery and breaking and entering,” said Power. “A lot of the time students themselves are the perps.”

Power is the community service director for District Four, which includes the South End and Northeastern University. District Four Headquarters are located at 650 Harrison Ave., near the intersection of Harrison and Massachusetts Avenue.

On Power’s desk is a stack of police reports of crime around the Northeastern neighborhood. An overwhelming majority are reports of robbery, breaking and entering and disorderly conduct.

“The city is safe. What students really should be worrying about is staying aware and protecting themselves and their belongings from robbery,” he said.

Power said a number of factors come together to make students an attractive target for robbery, both by campus-outsiders and other students.

“Students generally have desirable property like laptops and digital cameras. Also, most students don’t really challenge people they do not know inside a building,” he said.

Aside from stolen property, both Public Safety and the Boston Police have other crimes to focus on around campus, Power said. The Boston Police Department receives countless calls from residents who are disturbed by loud parties and disorderly conduct in campus neighborhoods.

“We work hard to build a good rapport with Northeastern, but we have had issues with students disrupting the peace in the neighborhoods on the weekends. That’s a lot of the crime that we are dealing with,” Power said. “There has only been one homicide in our district this year.”

Life as usual

Power and Ferrier assure students the neighborhoods around the Northeastern campus are safe. They use the statistics to back their assertions and students like Richardson believe the argument.

“The crime over here doesn’t seem to involve college students much, so I don’t really worry about it,” Richardson said. “Plus, it seems like there is much less robbery over on the Columbus Avenue side of campus than there usually is on Hemenway Street.”

Both Richardson and Goebel said they refuse to let the recent shootings change their impression of living on Columbus Avenue.

“I like it much more over here than living on Huntington,” Goebel said. “There’s a lot more character. Like Jazz Fest, I would have never encountered anything like that over on Huntington. It’s not just college kids over here.”

Just because he feels safe, however, does not mean Richardson is letting their guard down.

“You need to use common sense, just like anywhere else in the city. As long as you don’t put yourself in a position for something bad to happen, you’ll be fine,” Richardson said.

Both students and police officers like Power acknowledge that crime is an unfortunate part of city life. Power said he encourages students to be responsible.

“For many of these kids, it’s their first time away from home,” Power said. “Living in the city can be great, but you just have to be very aware of things, not necessarily fearful, but aware. Just be careful and have common sense.”

Even for those students who are keeping their guard up the most, urban life still has its benefits, Strout said.

“The city has so much to offer. I don’t regret coming here at all,” she said. “I knew it would be a huge culture shock, coming from a small town, but I am glad that I live here.”