Brelynn Woodrick used to walk every other night from Bracken Library to LaFollette Complex on her own, down McKinley Avenue, past Shafer Tower.
That is, until Wednesday night, when she was assaulted.
Woodrick was walking back to her residence hall around 11:15 p.m. when a man walked toward her from behind a bush near the Architecture Building on the corner of McKinley and Neely avenues.
"He started walking and just talking to me, but I just kept on walking," Woodrick said. "I had a bag that was over my shoulder and he came up and grabbed it, and I kind of stumbled a little bit, and I think he may have been drunk or something because he slurred his words a lot, and he wasn't coordinated."
Woodrick said she started walking at a faster pace to lose him, but he caught up and pulled on her bag again.
"I just asked ‘What are you doing?' I don't know why I said it, just out of instinct, I guess," she said. "He just pulled my bag so hard where I fell down to my hands and my knees, and then I guess he got scared or something because I was in the light and so he turned around and ran away."
The freshman theater education major said she saw a few people when she started her walk and at LaFollette, but there wasn't anyone around her when she was attacked.
Shaken from the event, Woodrick walked back to her residence hall and talked with her friends. It wasn't until the resident assistant asked her to call the University Police Department that she reported the assault.
"My first instinct wasn't to call the police," she said. "I was just like, ‘Wow, I can't believe this just happened to me and I was able to just walk away from it,' so I just went to my friends for them to comfort me."
Woodrick said she walked down the same route she usually did to get back to her residence hall, though this time she walked on the sidewalk closer to the Architecture Building. She said she is not afraid to walk at night, but she's going to take more precautions.
"I've always walked to the library and other places alone because I wasn't afraid, and I'm still not afraid but I'm a lot more conscious when it's nighttime. I'll definitely be walking home with someone, maybe even take some type of defense, like pepper spray or something like that," she said. "I think it's good not to just rely on yourself as a defense mechanism."
According to an e-mail sent to Ball State students, faculty and staff, the assailant was described as a 200-pound, 5-foot, 10-inch, 18- to 22-year-old white male wearing a black, hooded sweatshirt with a white logo, blue jeans and white shoes.
Gene Burton, director of public safety, said he recommends students take caution when walking outside at night. He also said they should use Charlie Charter to get from one part of campus to another.
Burton said there is no indication that the assailant was a Ball State student, but Woodrick said she thought he could be.
"He wasn't an older adult. It definitely seemed like he could've been a student here," she said.
Woodrick said the event made her more conscious of her surroundings, but she still would not feel prepared if the situation had been worse.
"I was lucky that nothing like that happened. I wasn't injured or anything," she said. "I thought I was the tough type of person, but if I was in a situation like that I wouldn't know what my initial instinct would be."
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