UPDATE: The description of the perpetrator from a Prince George’s County Police blog post from Monday afternoon has been included.
Police are searching for an unidentified man who assaulted a female student on Hartwick Road early this morning.
Armed with a knife, the man attacked the student on the 4400 block of Hartwick at about 6 a.m., according to a UMD Alert released Sunday at 12:55 p.m. The man grabbed her around the neck from behind, but as they walked backward, the student was able to break free and run away.
The victim was not injured, Prince George’s County Police spokeswoman Nicole Hubbard said.
The victim’s roommate, Amanda Miller, said the victim ran into Miller’s room “hysterically crying” after the incident happened. Miller, a sophomore communications major, helped her roommate calm down and listened to her explain what happened.
The victim told Miller she left to get an early breakfast with her friends. When she came back, the man attacked her when she got out of her car.
“As she closed the door and walked towards the apartment … a man came behind her, put a knife to her neck and started grabbing her and whispered in her ear, ‘You’re coming with me,’” Miller said.
Miller called police while the victim spoke to her mother on the telephone.
Detectives are actively looking for the perpetrator, Hubbard said. A Prince George’s County Police blog post Monday described him as a white man approximately 6 feet tall. The victim told police he was wearing a flannel coat or shirt and had dirty fingernails and a foul body odor.
Police encourage anyone with information about the assault to call 911 or 301-772-4908.
Miller said her roommate went back to her family in New York and is beginning to feel better.
“It’s going to be a long process, but for the time being, she is going to be with her mom, she’s stopped crying and is a little more relaxed,” Miller said.
