University Of Chicago Student Decided She Wasn't Going To Be A Crime Statistic

A University of Chicago student robbed at gunpoint this week fought back and grabbed a key piece of evidence that's now in the hand of detectives.

The entire incident was captured on surveillance video. Madelyn, 21, a senior studying economics, was walking home from class Wednesday afternoon when a man approached her in the 5600 block of South University.

"I see a man in a ski mask coming toward me," Madelyn said, "and I attempt to keep walking."

She said the man had a gun, and he wanted her cell phone.

"He asked me to give him my phone. ... That's when he flashed the gun."

On the video, you can see them tussle as several people watched.

"He is grabbing for my phone," Madelyn recalled, "and I am kinda pulling it behind my back."

What happened next is hard for her to remember, but Madelyn somehow got ahold of the gun.

"In the tussle, I was able to take the magazine out of his gun, and I tossed it into a bush. But at the moment, I didn't know what I was grabbing."

The man got away with Madelyn's phone, which police later found, along with the gun's magazine.

Madelyn urges others not to resist during an armed robbery as she did.

"I did not register the situation," she said. "It all happened so quickly. Definitely just give the phone away. I don't think the altercation was the best solution."

Madelyn was one of three U of C students robbed at gunpoint Wednesday. The school has increased police patrols around campus, but Madelyn said more needs to be done to keep students safe.