A robber threatened to blow away a college kid in University Heights. A gun was shoved in a grandfather's face while he sat in his car in Clifton. A waitress and her boyfriend had a gun pointed at them in Corryville.

        More than 100 times from January through April this year, armed robbers poked guns at people on streets or in parking lots in the city, demanding they empty their pockets.

University of Cincinnati student John Warner was held up at gunpoint in University Heights last month.

        Robberies at gunpoint in Cincinnati during the first four months of this year were nearly double what they were during the same time in 2001 and 2000.

        “I've been walking around these streets for four years and never have I felt insecure or that I was in jeopardy,” says John Warner, a 22-year-old University of Cincinnati student. But now, “There are some crazy people out there, seriously.”

        Mr. Warner was lucky. He had no money, and the robber gave up his bluff. Police caught the man, who had pointed a gun two inches from Mr. Warner's chest before walking away.

        All kinds of violence is increasing in Cincinnati and across the country. But armed robberies — when they're random — are among the most personal attacks. They're among the crimes that most worried the residents of East Walnut Hills, prompting them to hold a neighborhood safety meeting in May that drew Mayor Charlie Luken, four City Council members and an assistant police chief.

        They were worried about a neighbor who'd been held up while walking his dog.

        “That's frightening,” says Mary Farris, who helped organize the meeting. “If that's happening here, it's something that can happen to anybody.”

        Robberies at gunpoint happen at all hours, not just at night. Occasionally, the victims are shot, but not often.

        Arrests are few: The crimes are difficult to solve, police say, because victims often don't get a good look at assailants. Sometimes it's dark, or the robbers wear ski masks or approach their victims from behind.

        The robberies are still most common in the city's tougher areas, like Over-the-Rhine and Avondale, where police say they're almost always motivated directly by drugs — a dealer ripping off a buyer, for example.

        In Over-the-Rhine alone, it happened 37 times in the first four months of this year, more than double the 16 in the same time last year.

        But now, victims also are reporting armed robberies in a wider variety of safer neighborhoods, places like downtown, Roselawn, East Walnut Hills and around UC.

        Many of these likely are related to drugs, too, police say, but in a different way — robbers feeding their habits by preying on innocent people.
       

"Don't be stupid”

Aft

        It happened two weeks ago to former United Way President Richard Aft as he sat in his car on a Monday morning in Clifton, just feet away from the busy Ludlow Avenue business district.

        Mr. Aft, 64, had just come out of his neighborhood post office branch on Ormond Avenue, where he bought stamps to send postcards to his grandchildren. He took out his wallet, where he keeps their addresses.

        “Without any notice, I had a big, black gun two inches from my body, six inches from my face,” Mr. Aft says.

        The man told him not to be stupid, to give him the wallet. Mr. Aft did, losing it, the $60 inside and his credit cards. The robber kept his head outside the car, above the window, so Mr. Aft never got a look at him.

        Officers responded immediately, but couldn't do much. Mr. Aft couldn't describe the man.

        “So there's no evidence, there's no description,” says Sgt. Brian Ibold, supervisor of one of Cincinnati police's five violent crimes squads. “These are very hard to solve.”

        Some victims know their assailants.

        “A drug deal that's gone bad, it can be that the supplier is owed money from the street-level dealer and he's trying to collect,” explains Cincinnati Police Sgt. Tim Fritz. “Or it can be a retaliation where the buyer is fleeced and is trying to get back at somebody.

        “I guess the best way to put it,” he says, “is this: Today's victim is tomorrow's suspect.”

        Three weeks ago on McMillan Street in Walnut Hills, a man told officers he had been shot during a robbery. But investigators figured out that he'd stopped there to pick up a prostitute for $10. When he asked for change for his $20, she came back with a man who thought the “john” might have more money to steal.

        In most cases, these are serial robbers. So one arrest generally solves more than one incident.

        Adrian Sutherlin, a 21-year-old Walnut Hills man, faces trial in August on aggravated robbery and robbery counts. Cincinnati police say he robbed two women, a pizza delivery driver and an elderly man. He got out of jail June 18 after posting a $20,000 bond.

        The man accused of robbing Mr. Warner on June 4, Darius Hill, also was caught — about a minute after he held up the UC student. Mr. Hill, an 18-year-old from South Fairmount, is charged with taking a woman's wallet and another man's wallet, watch and necklace.

        Officers had been looking for him already because of two other hold-ups within minutes that night in the same neighborhood, one on the same street, Stratford Avenue.

        Police did not find the man accused of robbing the waitress' boyfriend and groping her last month on Glendora Avenue in Corryville.
       

Victims reflect

        The robbery didn't leave Mr. Warner traumatized, probably, he says, because he saw a police officer within seconds of the holdup and Mr. Hill was caught a few minutes later.

        He does, however, walk female friends to their houses and cars now, and is more aware of his surroundings as he walks around campus.

        Mr. Warner's mother tried to talk him into moving to another neighborhood. He assured her that he's living in one of the safest areas around the university.

        “When I was staring at the gun, and when he said he should shoot me, I was like, "What? I can't believe this is happening,'” Mr. Warner says. “I think I was lucky I didn't have anything on me.”

        Mr. Aft, who helped host a VIP reception for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center groundbreaking downtown hours after he was victimized on June 17, says his incident made him grateful that Clifton has neighborhood officers and a block-watch program where residents look out for each other.

        “In retrospect, you think, "Gee, I did the right thing by following the instructions of an armed robber,'” he says. “But you don't expect it anywhere. Nobody expects to be robbed, to be threatened with a weapon.

        “It's not the kind of thing you want to have happening in your community, in your neighborhood.”
       

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