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A young woman who lives across the street from Cal State San Bernardino has vanished, and authorities are calling her disappearance 'suspicious' due to a series of recent assaults. Sahray Barber, a 22-year-old graphic design student at the Art Institute in San Bernardino, disappeared after 6 a.m on Monday, when she was last seen leaving her apartment at 1505 West Northpark Blvd. near Cal State San Bernardino, Press Enterprise reports.
Lt. Rich Lawhead of the San Bernardino Police Department said that Barber typically walks or uses public transit to get to her job at the Art Institute's library, but that she never arrived that day. Police also found some of her possessions on the apartment complex's grounds, the San Bernardino Sun reports.
The area where Barber lives also makes her disappearance suspect, due a recent rash of crimes. On Sunday afternoon, a student at CSUSB said that a man grabbed her from behind while she was walking near the John M Pfau Library, put his hand over her mouth and told her they were going for a ride. The student was able to elbow him and escape. Another woman said that a man tried to sexually assault her in a stairwell of the library, but she fought her attacker her off. Both women described their attacker as a Hispanic man in his late teens or early 20s who was about 5'8" tall.
These attacks follow a violent carjacking, in which a man approached a student at his car with a gun and demanded the student drive them both off campus. Once the student had complied, the man hit the student and stole his money and phone. He later crashed that car and carjacked a Lexus from a nurse who stopped to help. He was arrested when he also crashed that Lexus.
In response to the carjacking and attacks, CSUSB has beefed up its security. CSUSB president Tomás D. Morales also released a video about campus safety, encouraging students to travel in groups and to not be distracted by phones or headphones.
Barber is described as a white, 22-year-old woman who is 5'8" tall and 125 pounds with long, auburn hair and green eyes. Anyone with information should call 909-384-5623.
