Columbia community reacts to parking garage carjacking on early Saturday morning
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Many Columbia residents and students said they have mixed feelings about the safety of the area after the armed carjacking at the Hitt Street Garage, early Saturday morning.
Zi Tompkins, a junior at Mizzou, works just a few blocks from the Hitt Street Garage and said she couldn't find an Uber late Friday night so she ended up walking home alone.
"That was really scary to hear about," Tompkins said. "It could happen to anyone."
Tompkins said from now on she'll be more cautious when out late at night, downtown.
Ryan McDonough, a Columbia resident, said he'll be thinking twice when he's out by himself at night.
"Downtown, if I'm by myself, maybe I'm a little bit nervous," McDonough said. "But when I'm with a group of guys, you know I feel a little better."
Richard Walls, is the owner of the Heidelberg which is right by the Hitt Street Garage. Walls said he hasn't seen a difference in business since the incident Saturday morning.
"It didn't seems to have much effect this weekend, we had a great weekend," Walls said.
He said when the incident happened, some of the staff saw it on their Mizzou alert so they were aware of the situation. Walls said he feels like the university does a great job with educating the students with what is going on in the area.
Motor-vehicle theft was down in the University of Missouri's Police Department jurisdiction in 2020 by almost 53% compared to 2019. In 2020, the department documented nine cases of motor-vehicle left compared to 19 cases in 2019.
Motor-vehicle theft happened most frequently on Sundays followed by Fridays in 2020. Every other day of the week had the same number of vehicle thefts reported according to the the department.
In 2020, the University of Missouri Police Department reported three non-fatal firearm related crimes.
MU Police confirmed the student in the carjacking was not hurt. Police are still looking for two individuals wanted for questioning in the case.
Anyone with information is asked to call the MU police department at 573-882-7202.
