Pitt Police delay crime alert

University police issued a crime alert Monday afternoon, more than 24 hours after a man snuck… University police issued a crime alert Monday afternoon, more than 24 hours after a man snuck into a Pitt student’s Oakland apartment while she was sleeping and raped her.

Police Chief Tim Delaney said he waited until almost 1 p.m. Monday to release an alert about the 20-year-old’s rape, which occurred between 5 and 7 a.m. Sunday, because local media covered the event and it occurred off campus, on Parkview Avenue.

After a similar incident this July, Pitt police did not delay. They posted fliers on campus buildings and on their website the same day three unidentified men broke into a house on Meyran Avenue and sexually assaulted a woman who lived inside.

Delaney said the Pitt police department does not have a written policy dictating when to issue crime alerts, and it treats them on a case-by-case basis.

“The moment that you create a template, sure enough something is going to come along that isn’t in there,” he said.

The alert issued Monday listed the time of the crime and the location, but did not give a description of the suspect, something that surprised Delaney.

“I thought that we duplicated what was on the air,” he said.

When deciding when to issue the alert, Delaney and other Pitt officials considered the incident’s distance from campus and the lack of “imminent danger” to the student body, Delaney said.

He said that by the time Pitt police found out about the incident, the suspect had already fled. Because the public and the victim were no longer in immediate danger, police shifted their focus toward catching the suspect.

“This is something that occurred, that we have to take our time, cover all of our angles and catch this guy,” Delaney said.

He said that on Sunday, details of the incident had dispersed through various media sources before he had all of the facts.

“What the heck am I going to report?” he said. “It is all over TV, all over radio, all over the Internet.”

He also encouraged anyone with information related to the incident to come forward to either Pitt police or city police.

City police are leading the investigation.

They are searching for a muscular black man between 5 feet 8 inches and 5 feet 9 inches tall, spokeswoman Diane Richard said in an e-mail. The man was last seen wearing a bandana, skull cap or possibly pantyhose covering his face.

Richard said that anyone with information about the incident should call the Sexual Assault and Family Crisis Unit at 412-323-7141 or the Major Crimes Unit at 412-323-7800.

The Pitt News does not print the names of rape victims.