Suspects apprehended for armed robberies, assaults (video available)

Three Salem County men have been arrested for the armed robberies and assaults of four  Rowan University students on Nov. 11, law enforcement officials announced at a press conference (video available) today on Rowan’s campus.

“These were unusual crimes on our campus and we’re very pleased to say to you that the perpetrators of the crimes were arrested last night,” Rowan President Donald Farish said in a press conference that also included representatives from Rowan and Glassboro police and the prosecutor’s offices of Salem and Gloucester counties.

Two separate armed robberies occurred in Glassboro on Nov. 11, one on campus and the other off campus.

According to police, in the first incident, three Rowan freshmen were walking back from the Wawa on Delsea Drive at 12:45 a.m. when they took a short cut through a maintenance yard just off Route 322 and were approached by three assailants. One of the assailants brandished a gun. One student was assaulted when he resisted the assailants’ request for the students’ belongings. He refused treatment.

The assailants escaped on foot and then fled the area in a car, according to police.

In the second incident, which occurred 10 minutes later, another Rowan student was approached as he walked in the parking lot of Campus Crossings, an off-campus apartment complex that houses many University students.

The student was pistol-whipped and robbed. He was taken to Cooper Trauma Center, where he was treated and released. The assailants fled the scene.

On Nov. 13, two days after the incidents, a Glassboro police officer on patrol approached an individual in the area of Campus Crossings. Police determined that he had an outstanding warrant and the individual was apprehended while attempting to flee the scene, according to reports.

The following day, police, working on a report from a witness that the individual may have discarded something as he tried to flee, searched the area and recovered a gun in some bushes.  Police said the gun had been reported stolen from Salem County.

Subsequent investigations and interrogations by law enforcement officials led to the arrest of three Woodstown men for the Nov. 11 assaults: Brothers Lance M. Husser, 23, and Landis M. Husser, 20, who were charged with robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, possession of a weapon and aggravated assault; and Ernest J. Watson, 23, who was charged with robbery by force, conspiracy to commit robbery and aggravated assault.

All three suspects were remanded to Gloucester County Jail, where their bail was set at a full $250,000 each. The suspects were not permitted to post 10 percent of their bail.

Police said Lance M. Husser was the individual who was wanted on the outstanding warrant.

Salem County Prosecutor John T. Lenahan said the arrests were the result of solid cooperation among law enforcement agencies at Rowan, in Glassboro, and in both counties.

“This was a textbook investigation,” Lenahan said.

Please visit http://www.rowan.edu/open/video/press_conf_12-11-08.html