DES MOINES, Iowa — A Drake University student was the subject of an attempted abduction on the west edge of campus, according to a campus wide email sent out on Thursday.
Drake Public Safety has been able to establish the timeline of the events and presence of an involved vehicle using campus video footage, but it has reportedly not been able to identify the vehicle's make, model or license plate number.
To close, the email stated that the school's emergency management team will be assessing the situation and providing additional information to students and community as available.
Drake sophomore Natalie Gogoladze is a close friend of the victim of Wednesday's attempted abduction.
"She was walking her friends back and then these two guys started like trying to pull her in the car and she jerked her body and ended up punching one square in the face and he fell and then she reached for her phone to call police and they got scared and drove away," Gogoladze said.
Executive Director of Drake Public Safety, Scott Law said their top priority is ensuring students are safe while on campus.
"Once we received the report which came in about an hour after the event, we reviewed video type to see if we could substantiate all the facts, get some description of vehicles, along those lines," Law told Local 5.
Students Local 5 spoke with say they are pleased with how Drake University handled the matter. Though, when something urgent happens on campus the university puts out a Bulldog Alert, but with this incident students like Brett Ingamells said they didn't receive one.
"I'm not sure why usually we get an email and phone call that tells you that there is an incident going down," Ingamells said.
After Drake Public Safety collected all the information, it says it determined the appropriate response was to put out a timely warning rather than a Bulldog Alert.
"A timely warning is issued when a significant period of time has passed from the event to us being notified. A Bulldog Alert is used if it's an ongoing event that is happening right then and there that we want students to take immediate steps for," Law said.
Drake student Cassie Contreraz says this incident has her traveling around campus in groups.
"Definitely utilizing our campus resources more like our safe ride bus and just taking a notice to public safety more," Contreraz shared about how the near-abduction affected her.
Drake University says it works closely with the Des Moines Police Department, utilizing about 55 DMPD officers for day-to-day operations. The university says it had additional officers on campus Thursday evening, and it plans to do the same Friday evening.
Local 5 will update this story as more information becomes available. Download the We Are Iowa app or subscribe to Local 5's "5 Things to Know" email newsletter for the latest.