CHICAGO (CBS) — The University of Chicago late Tuesday will hold a meeting on trying to tackle crime near the Hyde Park campus.
The meeting will be held virtually. The university’s efforts come in the wake of several violent crimes involving U of C students over the last year.
Three students have been killed. Most recently, Dennis Zheng – who had just graduated – was shot and killed during a robbery at 54th Place and Ellis Avenue on on Tuesday, Nov. 9.
Police said Zheng was on the sidewalk shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday – when out of nowhere, a vehicle pulled up, and a gunman jumped out and demanded his property.
The attacker then shot Zheng in the chest, got back in the vehicle, and fled the scene.
Alton Spann, 18, was later charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery, and two counts of unlawful use of a weapon in Zheng’s murder. Police said that it was all over a cellphone that was later sold for $100.
Zheng was one of three University of Chicago student killed in 2021.
Following Zheng’s murder, the university said Chicago Police and University of Chicago Police would be working more jointly moving forward. A safety plan discussed in the wake of the shooting entailed live cameras from a new operations center soon set to open, and keeping campus police and students in the loop about crime in the area – as students had been demanding.