COLLEGE PARK, Md. (DC News Now) — A University of Maryland College Park student is shaken up after she was almost carjacked in broad daylight at an on-campus parking garage Thursday.
With quick thinking medical student, Jamirra Franklin, was able to escape, but now she said she does not feel safe on campus and wants something to be done.
“[I’m] very traumatized, I’m definitely grateful to still be alive, [and] I’m happy to be unharmed,” Franklin said.
The medical student parked her car on the second level of Regents Drive Parking Garage when she was approached by three men in a silver SUV Thursday afternoon.
“I went to my truck just to grab my lab coat and as I was in the trunk, this car just rolled up next to me,” she said. “[They said] give me your keys and they were getting closer and closer. So I just started yelling for help, and then the other man was like, give me your phone.”
With quick thinking she threw her keys from the second floor onto the side walk and ran. She said the suspects tried to start her car but were unsuccessful.
“They started following me out the garage, and then I just saw a lady and I hopped in her car and hid down so they couldn’t see me. I just heard them like drive past me,” Franklin said.
Campus police say the silver SUV was last seen on Baltimore Ave. driving away from campus.
“I just knew I couldn’t overtake three men,” Franklin said. “So my first instinct was to just kind of get out of there.”
Franklin said she never imagined something like this happening to her on a college campus.
“I think college is supposed to be a place for students just to come and feel safe to continue their education so now I just don’t feel safe to come back,” she said.
Franklin said she wants more police presence on campus.
“For three men to just approach me and it’s four o’clock broad daylight, like I just don’t understand,” she said.
DC News Now reached out to the university’s police for any additional safety measures that would be taken but did not get a response back in time for publication. DC News Now did witness several campus police driving around the parking garage where the attempted carjacking incident happened.
The situation is still being investigated as of Friday.
