University of Oregon investigating report of kidnapping, sexual assault near campus

A student reported that he was walking near East 19th Avenue and Agate Street on Saturday night when he was grabbed from behind by an unknown man, restrained, dragged to a car, driven to an unknown location and sexually assaulted.

The victim told investigators the attacker then ran away. The suspect is described as a white man, 6 feet 2 inches to 6 feet 4 inches tall with a thin and muscular build. He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, black Ray Ban sunglasses, a black beanie-style hat, a black bandana over the lower part of his face and black pants.

There was no description available for the driver of the car.

The University of Oregon Police Department said in a statement that the case was reported to the Eugene Police Department, but was not shared with university police until Monday. After receiving the information, administrators offered support to the victim and shared the information with the campus community.

This case follows a string of armed robberies – at least eight in two weeks – in Eugene, with several occurring near campus.

In another recent incident, university police said a female student reported being attacked by three men at 12:30 p.m. March 15 near East 15th Avenue and Alder Street.

In that case, the student said she was approached by three men, with one of them grabbing her hair and pushing her up against a car, while the other two pulled out knives and tried to cut the straps from her backpack.

The student said she was able to take out her phone and told the men she had called police, which led to the suspects running away. The student said the men did not "menace" her with the knives.

She said the men were between 25 and 30 years old and spoke Spanish to each other.

The University of Oregon Police Department has added extra officers to patrol the streets near campus and also contracted with a private security company to provide four unarmed security officers to patrol city streets near campus. The campus shuttle also now has expanded hours and a 25-person bus has been added to the fleet to boost capacity.

For more information, go to police.uoregon.edu.