For decades, the University of Chicago has fought to keep at bay the crime that sometimes swirled about the neighborhoods surrounding the Hyde Park campus.
But in one violent hour early Monday, that seemingly guarded atmosphere came unhinged by the death of Amadou Cisse, a Senegalese graduate student shot just weeks after he had successfully defended his doctoral thesis. A short time earlier, two other attacks against university students and a staffer occurred within blocks of the slaying.
Chicago police said they are investigating whether the three crimes are related.
As police investigate the homicide, university officials held a community meeting with a few hundred students, attempting to quell fears sparked by the violence and reassure students that the incidents, though horrific, are rare.
Officials also had to answer why they did not notify students of the incidents until nine hours later.
“We were in the process of gathering information, and we wanted to make sure that we were very accurate before we sent anything to students and other members of the university,” Kimberly Goff-Crews, vice president and dean of students, told the standing-room-only crowd of students.
Olivia Boyd was one of the students who came to the campus meeting for answers. Her friend was the first to be attacked early Monday, she said. The man was walking near the 6000 block of South Woodlawn Avenue about 12:33 a.m. when he noticed a car nearby pull up to him, she said.
“He knew that something was very wrong, so he ran,” Boyd said. “Someone got out of the car and chased him. That was when he was shot at.”
The man was not shot but injured himself as he jumped a fence, she said.
About 45 minutes later, in the 900 block of East 57th Street, five armed men robbed two female students, police believe. Police issued an alert about that incident, with relatively vague descriptions that identified the men as about 17 to 20 years old of average height and weight, possibly driving a light-colored car.
Wallet, books left behind
Cisse, who the school said was 29, was attacked next. Just after 1:26 a.m., witnesses saw a gunman in the 6100 block of South Ellis Street fire a shot at Cisse’s chest before fleeing in a car. Police believe there was evidence of a struggle and that it may have been an attempted robbery, although Cisse’s wallet and books were left behind.
Authorities do not have a description of the assailant but did recover a small-caliber gun from the scene, which they are trying to trace. The university is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for Cisse’s death. He was shot off campus, but university officials plan to build a dorm there.
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Just weeks earlier, Cisse had celebrated completing every requirement necessary to get his doctorate in chemistry.
On that night, Cisse took a moment to enjoy how far he had come, smiling modestly as he stood among colleagues and friends at the small celebration in his honor, friends said.
“I finally saw him relax … at that party,” said Steven Sibener, a chemistry professor and his thesis adviser. “He had gotten to the mountaintop, and I was tremendously proud of him.”
In the professor’s office, a row of dissertations from previous doctoral students lined a shelf. Above them, empty bottles of champagne had been signed by each of his students. Cisse’s name was signed in blue ink on the most recent bottle.
Friends talked of the man’s promise, the warm and quiet personality behind the bright mind. Cisse was the eldest to a sister and brother and raised by his mother in Senegal after his father died when he was young, friends said. An exceptional student, he came to the U.S. to attend high school in New Mexico on scholarship.
At Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, he graduated with degrees in chemistry, physics and mathematics, said college friend Ken Chiang, who has known him for a decade.
“Amadou understood that he had been given an opportunity that many in Senegal, in Africa, do not have,” said Czerny Brasulle, director of multicultural affairs at Bates. “The taking of his life has resulted in the absence of someone who would have made a difference in the world.”
Music from homeland
At the U. of C., Cisse was known as much for his hard work as his passion for his religion, Islam, friends said.
“When I first got to know him, he was a pretty shy, very timid and gentle guy,” said Mohsin Ali, 21, an undergraduate student. “He only talked during small settings, but we spoke often of faith and Islam and how it mattered to him.”
Cisse also loved Senegalese music that he would download online from his homeland and play on an outdated Walkman. Friends would hear him humming as he worked, sometimes to 1980s pop music, sometimes to a French cartoon theme he loved as a child.
“I used to tease him a lot about that,” said friend Hanqiu Yuan, a graduate student. “He just laughed and played them all the time.”
The tapes and Walkman are still on his office desk.
He was quick to help others, from moving 1,000 pounds of weights for a director at the International House where he lived for several years to teaching chemistry to younger students. He wanted to return home to teach chemistry, friends said.
In recent years the university has increased police presence on campus as well as in the surrounding neighborhoods of Woodlawn and South Kenwood. More than 15 additional police officers have been hired since 2003 as the university expanded patrols south to 64th Street, between Stony Island and Evans Avenues. The annual budget for the police department also increased during that time, up $1.4 million, to $5.5 million a year.
More police presence
As a result of Monday’s shooting, the university further increased police presence in the area and also beefed up the SafeRide program, which provides late-night transportation for faculty, staff or students. The university also plans to review its security policies to determine if better methods can be implemented, possibly cameras, officials said.
The number of violent crimes in the area from 47th to 61st Streets fell from 523 incidents in 1996 to 298 incidents in 2006, although burglaries and robberies have increased by small amounts in recent years.
But the shooting death of a student raises a new challenge for a university that tries to assuage potential fears of prospective students and their families.
Students and experts questioned Monday whether university officials waited too long to alert students, faculty and staff.
Alison Kiss, program director at the non-profit Security on Campus, which works to prevent violence on college campuses, said too much time lapsed before officials notified the community. Similar concerns were raised after the shooting massacre at Virginia Tech University this year, which left 33 dead, including the gunman.
“In this case, where a [staff member] was shot at, students were robbed, it is important to make sure there is a way to notify your students,” Kiss said. “We like to see it within 30 minutes when there is an imminent risk.”
University officials said they wanted to make sure the information they released was accurate, and that takes time.
“It is always a difficult decision between notification and making sure you have the facts right,” said Hank Webber, vice president for community and government affairs. “We made the decision we could make.”
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