April 20, 2001

Police Apprehend Stabbing Suspect

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Ithaca Police arrested a 17-year-old Ithaca youth Wednesday in connection with last weekend’s robbing and stabbing of a Cornell student outside the Delta Kappa Epsilon (DKE) house at 13 South Ave. He was charged with first degree robbery and second degree assault.

The victim, a DKE brother, was taken to Cayuga Medical Center following the early Saturday morning attack, where he received six stitches in his arm. He was subsequently released and is doing well now, according to Matt Hyland ’01, president of DKE.

While the police did not really the details of how the arrest was made, IPD Deputy Chief Lauren Signer said it i probable that some of the attacker’s friends reported his actions to higher authorities.

“Usually kids rat on each other. They boast and tell all their friends and one of the friends tells a parent who tells us,” Signer explained.

The Ithaca Police Department is continuing to investigate the incident. The youth is at the Tompkins County Jail right now, in lieu of $2,500 cash bail.

Hyland expressed relief that police apprehended the suspect.

“I am happy that they were able to figure out who he was but it’s disturbing that someone of that age would do something like that,” Hyland remarked.

In light of the recent attack, Signer suggested that Cornell students take certain precautions to prevent a similar incident in the future, such as placing a responsible person in charge of the entrance to a party in order to regulate who is allowed in. In addition, she advises that smaller, more intimate parties are safer than ones in which everyone is welcome.

“Just because you’re there [at Cornell] to learn and you feel safe doesn’t mean that everyone is there for the same reason. It’s a false sense of security,” Signer said.

Archived article by Rachel Pessah