Students Still Feel Safe Amid Recent Crimes in the MSUM Neighborhood

Many students told us they still feel safe when on campus

MOORHEAD, Minn. — Police said a man with stab wounds to the chest showed up at a south Moorhead home asking for help.

This adds to the list of crimes in a neighborhood just south of MSUM.

Authorities said they don’t know where the stabbing took place.

But it was in the 1200 block of 18th Street South where the victim asked for help.

Officers told us the victim is not cooperating which makes it more difficult to get information and find a suspect.

Just south of MSUM and Romkey Park, this is the same neighborhood where a man was fatally shot two weeks ago.

But the University’s Public Safety director, Jim Schumann, said it’s not a bad neighborhood.

“There have been a couple of things that may be have made a higher profile in the news and in other areas in the community,” said Schumann, “But I think that generally, we’re in a relatively safe area of the city.”

Police in Moorhead told me these recent crimes were targeted, not random.

Because of this, they feel danger is not increasing.

In light of the multiple crimes south of Minnesota State University Moorhead, many of the students on and off campus still say they feel safe.

“There isn’t a lot that happens on campus as far as I’m aware, but I don’t feel in danger at all,” said Brandon Hecker a Senior at MSUM. 

“I don’t really like walking around alone at night,” said MSUM Sophomore Casey Johnson. “But for the most part, I feel safe.”

“We offer a free escort service 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said Schumann. “It’s also available to a limited area off campus for students to use and we’d encourage people to use that because it is a safe ride.”

Although many feel safe on campus, others feel different when heading to other parts of town.

“I definitely feel a lot less safe when I ride the bus to work,” said Brody Wilander, a Freshman at MSUM. “Depending on which way you go. Romkey Park’s kind of a little sketchy area and then there’s the trailer park which is a little weird, but if you’re just heading straight over towards the river, towards Conco, it seems pretty fine.”

Public Safety officials recommend not traveling alone at night, and reporting anything that looks suspicious.

But all the students I asked said they still feel safe in the MSUM neighborhood.

Police have not found a suspect in the overnight stabbing.