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Pre-Dawn on Vaughn Street: An Off-Campus Sexual Assault and a UM Crime Alert

MIsexual assaulttimely warninghigh confidence
Under Investigation

University of Michigan's Division of Public Safety and Security issued Crime Alert 2024-01 after the Ann Arbor Police Department opened an investigation into a sexual assault that occurred on March 9, 2024, at approximately 2:15 a.m. in the 1000 block of Vaughn Street. The female victim was attempting to open the front door of her residence when an unknown male came up from behind her, pulled her toward him, and groped her; she yelled and slapped the suspect, who fled on foot. The alert was issued the following day, March 10, 2024.

Alerts
1
Response
Killed
Injured
Institution
University of Michigan
Public R1 · MI
~52,800 studentsUM DPSS Crime Alert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

1 message in sequence · 1 verified verbatim

INITIAL ALERTEmail
CRIME ALERT 2024-01: SEXUAL ASSAULT The AAPD is investigating a sexual assault that occurred on March 9, 2024, at approximately 2:15 a.m. in the 1000 block of Vaughn Street. The female victim was attempting to open the front door of her residence when an unknown male came up from behind her. The suspect began to pull the victim towards him and then groped her. The victim yelled at the suspect and slapped him. The male then fled the area on foot. The suspect is described as a White male with short brown hair and approximately 6 feet tall. Officers responded to the scene and were unable to locate the suspect. If you have any information, please contact the AAPD tip line at 734.794.6939, email tips@a2gov.org.
Crime Alert 2024-01 was the first sexual-assault crime alert UM DPSS issued in calendar year 2024 — UM uses a sequential numbering system for Clery alerts that begins fresh each year
Although the assault occurred off-campus on Vaughn Street (a residential street west of central campus), UM DPSS issued a crime alert because the location is within Clery-reportable geography for student housing
The suspect description (White male, short brown hair, approximately 6 feet tall) is more specific than typical sexual-assault timely warnings, reflecting the stranger-attack context
The victim's response — yelling and slapping the suspect — caused him to flee, an outcome the alert preserves as informational fact rather than as a generic safety tip
AAPD (the Ann Arbor Police Department) is the lead investigative agency, not UM Police — UM DPSS rebroadcasts AAPD's investigation under the Clery Act because the geography meets Clery thresholds
Context

Background

University of Michigan issues numbered Clery crime alerts under the heading 'Crime Alert YYYY-NN' and posts them to the DPSS news-and-alerts page. Crime Alert 2024-01 — the year's first sexual-assault alert — concerned a stranger attack at the doorstep of a victim's residence in the 1000 block of Vaughn Street, a residential corridor west of UM's central campus that houses many student renters. UM DPSS coordinates with the Ann Arbor Police Department on incidents in shared geography, with AAPD often serving as the lead investigative agency for off-campus addresses while UM DPSS handles Clery notification. The alert reflects a common pattern at large public universities with substantial off-campus student populations: timely warnings extending beyond the strict bounds of campus property to addresses where students live and walk in the early-morning hours.
Analysis

Key Findings

Crime Alert 2024-01 was UM DPSS's first sexual-assault Clery alert of 2024, issued for an off-campus stranger attack within the university's Clery geography
The alert documents a relatively rare scenario: a stranger sexual assault at the victim's own doorstep in pre-dawn hours, with the suspect fleeing after the victim physically resisted
AAPD, not UM Police, is the lead investigating agency — illustrating the multi-jurisdictional structure of campus-adjacent crime response in college towns
UM uses sequential annual Crime Alert numbering, a transparency-friendly indexing system that lets community members track institutional alerting cadence year over year
Outcome
AAPD officers were unable to locate the suspect at the scene. Investigation continued; no public arrest reported in connection with this specific incident.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Official
  2. Student Paper
  3. News
  4. Official
Tags
sexual-assaulttimely-warningcrime-alertoff-campusstranger-attackmichiganpublic-r1ann-arborUnder Investigation
Added April 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion