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Men burst into apartment near UNCC with guns, rob students

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Police are investigating an overnight home invasion at an apartment complex near UNC Charlotte.

The incident happened just before 1 a.m. on Friday at the University Crossing Apartments on University City Boulevard, just across the street from campus.

Police said the attack was a case of mistaken identity, where three men with guns burst into an apartment and robbed three students, two of them athletes at UNC Charlotte.

Police said the three students were inside the apartment when the suspects stormed in, but nobody was hurt.

No other details have been released, and police have not said how many suspects they are searching for.

Courtney Patterson, a student who lives at the apartment complex, didn’t hear about the attack until hours after it happened.

Residents at the apartment complex, many of them students, are worried for their safety.

“It's definitely scary,” Patterson said.

Mallie Hutchens, a student, is upset that apartment complex management didn’t notify residents.

“That could have easily been me, you know?” Hutchens said.

Police don’t have any suspects at this point, and they have been keeping campus police up to speed on their investigation.

“It's just been getting so much worse, and like my freshman year, it was like this and then it died so much, and it's like picking up again and it's freaking me out,” student Hayley Goldman said.

The crime comes one day after three men were accused of robbing two students on the campus of UNCC.

[READ MORE: 3 arrested after series of armed robberies, including at UNC Charlotte]

The students spoke only with Channel 9. They said that after a late night of studying, they were walking down the sidewalk near the Student Union, heading home, when the suspects sneaked behind them.

"The gun was already pointed at him when I turned around,” said one of the students. “They had already taken my stuff and I looked at him to see what was going on and I saw the gun they were pointing at him."

Police said the suspects also tried to rob a convenience store on Brookshire Boulevard a few hours later.

All three suspects have been charged with conspiracy to commit armed robbery with a dangerous weapon and armed robbery with a dangerous weapon.

The latest crimes come as police investigate two sexual assaults, one at a dorm and the other at an apartment.

Police said the first assault happened Sunday morning when a man got inside a dorm in the Greek Village. Investigators believe the suspect could also be connected to an assault that same afternoon at the University Crossing Apartments.

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