Caitlin Kelleher, a senior in environmental sciences, was involved in an armed robbery at approximately 10:45 p.m. Sunday night. The Raleigh Police Department said it is investigating the crime.

The robbery took place on the 100 block of Horne Street, which is located off of Hillsborough Street near the post office. Kelleher was walking to her home from the library when approached by a black male armed with a rifle. The suspect demanded her purse and she said she complied with him. He then fled the scene by foot. Kelleher indicated she was not injured.

Kelleher said she saw a man passing the street and coming towards her, but she didn’t pay attention to him because there were a lot of people around and she has never felt unsafe in her own neighborhood.

“He started saying something to me, so I started to look at him, and he said ‘Give me your purse,'” Kelleher said. “I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ and he pulled out a gun and said that he wasn’t ‘f***ing kidding.'”

Kelleher said she didn’t give the suspect her purse, but instead gave him her wallet, which contained “some cash, but hardly any.”

After she gave him her wallet, the suspect told Kelleher to stop looking at him and to run away.

“So I ran away, I called the police before I even got all the way to my house,” Kelleher said. “They were great, they did a great job helping me and were here right away.”

According to the police report, the items stolen from Kelleher’s purse were valued at $30.

“I guess at first I was just really shocked that it was happening, but then when he had his gun on me — I was just so scared,” she said.

Kelleher said she and the RPD don’t think that the suspect had a real gun, but rather a toy gun.

According to the crime alert, Kelleher did not report the robbery until 2:35 a.m., but Kelleher claims that she reported it right away.

A student reportedly found Kelleher’s wallet on Hillsborough Street and turned it into Metcalf Residence Hall’s 24-hour desk. Kelleher said everything was returned, except for $1.

Kelleher described the suspect to the RPD as a black male wearing “a bandana over his face, baggy blue jeans and a black hooded sweatshirt, mid-20s, approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall and about 185 pounds,” according to Jim Sughrue, the public information officer for the RPD.

Sgt. John Barnwell of Campus Police, said Campus Police is taking action in alerting students of the crime, especially since it is an ongoing threat and there is no suspect in custody.

“We [sent] out a crime alert to the campus community to inform the campus, typically since it is an ongoing threat,” Barnwell said. “When [students] check their e-mail, [they] should have the alert that gives [them] the specifics of what happened.”

Sughrue said there have not been many similar crimes in the vicinity of Sunday night’s robbery.

“We have not seen a pattern of similar crimes out there,” he said.

Kelleher said the incident was upsetting and scary — particularly because the crime happened so close to her residence.

“I was just scared because I live here,” she said. “It’s no good to be scared in your own neighborhood on your own street.”