Cornell Senior Stabbed Near Campus

A Cornell senior was stabbed tonight as he walked through a wooded area near North Campus.

The Daily Sun is reporting that the victim is Marc Jackson, a senior in ILR. The Cornell crime alert notes that the incident occurred in a wooded area between the 300 block of Highland Road and the 300 block of Triphammer Road.

Jackson was accosted around 10:30 p.m. by two men who "forcibly took his backpack and fled." Jackson received a minor stab wound in the stomach during the incident. He returned to his residence, Kappa Delta Rho at 312 Highland Road, to call police. Jackson was taken to Cayuga Medical Center but has since been released.

I live in a house next door to Jackson's so I'm quite familiar with the neighborhood. The area in which Jackson was robbed is a common cut-through to get from North Campus to Cayuga Heights, but as it is not an official road or walking path, it is poorly lit. The route goes from Triphammer Road at the Africana center, past the Ecology House and then through property owned by the church (not shown on the map) to reach Highland Road. I have traveled this route many times when it is dark, and I can attest to its poor lighting. It is rare to encounter other people along this route at night.

Jackson described the suspects as "two black males, both of medium height and weight and both wearing grey sweatshirts and blue jeans."

The crime alert was posted around 2.5 hours after the stabbing, which is a much faster response time than we have seen from other "crime alerts" this year.

The Sun incorrectly lists the location as "Highland Avenue," which is actually the section of road between Thurston Ave. and Fall Creek Dr. near the suspension bridge. The street near which the stabbing occurred is Highland Road.

The area is home to several Greek houses, including KDR, Acacia, Tau Epsilon Phi, and Pi Beta Phi, as well as the Ecology House and Africana Library.

Cornell made headlines three years ago when a white Cornell student stabbed a black student who was visiting from Union College. The Cornell student had been drinking at a fraternity party by West Campus and yelled racial epithets at the Union student during their altercation.