Renewed concerns about safety around UT Austin after stabbing in West Campus
AUSTIN, Texas - There are renewed concerns about safety on and around the UT campus after a man was stabbed in the West Campus neighborhood Sunday night.
Shortly before 7 p.m., Austin police say Bert Baker, 36, stabbed another man at the intersection of West 26th and Nueces Streets. Officers arrived to find a man with stab wounds. He was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Baker was arrested and charged with aggravated assault.
MORE: Stabbing near UT campus after altercation: police
"It was scary," said UT Austin student Ava Long. "I live a couple of blocks down, but I did hear about it."
Neither the victim nor the suspect was a student, but the stabbing happened just two blocks from campus.
"I think the scariest part was that we heard it through social media before any like UTPD text or email," said UT Austin student Sadaf Khajeh.
Austin police were the lead agency on the stabbing, but UT police did put out a notification early Monday, also noting:
"Alerts issued for incidents beyond UTPD jurisdiction are dependent upon notification from outside agencies. UTPD is not obligated to issue alerts outside Clery geography, but will relay safety messaging from other agencies as a courtesy to our community."
"It’s concerning because it happens in our neighborhood," said SafeHorns President Joell McNew.
McNew says hours after the stabbing happened, a different suspect pulled a knife on a student about four blocks south. He wasn’t hurt, but McNew says there’s a larger problem with violent, and sometimes repeat offenders.
"It gets to the point that students name them machete guy, pole guy, box cutter guy," said McNew. "Are we waiting for those crimes to escalate to the point that they're a felony, because now he has stabbed someone and severely injured them, or has he murdered them? What are we waiting for?" said McNew.
Still, there have been a number of recent safety improvements in West Campus. Austin Energy has added new streetlights and replaced hundreds of old ones with LED bulbs. Since August, West Campus Safety Ambassadors have escorted hundreds of students home at night.
"They do make me feel better knowing that they're around," said Long.
However, students FOX 7 Austin spoke to say they’d also like to see more cops walking these streets.
"Officers are mainly on that side towards the campus. I think if they would come more into West Campus, which a lot of homeless people do live, I think that would be a little better," Khajeh.
If you need a West Campus Safety Ambassador or other safety resources, click here.