A man who robbed a Georgia State University student inside a school library Tuesday may also be responsible for a previous on-campus crime, authorities said — and a suspect was arrested Wednesday.
GSU police arrested Daniel Duplessy, 38, on charges of armed robbery and an outstanding failure to appear warrant after a lead from someone who recognized him from the police alert and contacted Atlanta authorities, campus police Deputy Chief Carlton Mullis said. Duplessy has been arrested several times on theft charges over the past three years, Fulton County jail records show.
According to information provided by GSU police, the student was robbed at gunpoint around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday inside Library North, the facility’s largest building at the intersection of Decatur and Courtland streets. The student was not injured, but his cellphone and laptop were stolen.
The victim described the robber as a black man between 25 and 30 years old with a “Mohawk style haircut,” police said — and then matched him to surveillance photos from a theft that occurred last month at the school’s Student Center West.
One photo from that incident shows the suspect wearing a denim jacket and bookbag while talking on a cellphone. His hair is cut tight on the sides and longer on top.
Mullis said Wednesday afternoon that investigators had developed a “strong suspect” and expected an arrest to be made soon. The arrest was announced Wednesday night.
“Robberies have occurred around and inside buildings in the past, but they are rare, especially inside a building,” Mullis said.
Tuesday’s incident, however, the second recent armed robbery targeting Georgia State students.
According to a crime alert issued last week by the university, two students were robbed at gunpoint Dec. 10 at One12 Courtland, a student apartment complex one block north of the GSU bookstore. Four men entered the students' apartment around 9:15 p.m. and stole a laptop and PlayStation gaming system.
No injuries were reported.
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