Fresno State Student’s iPhone Stops Bullet

On Monday night, a student at Fresno State was shot during an armed robbery, but an iPhone in his pants pocket blocked the bullet and saved his leg.

Fresno police Lt. Joe Gomez told The Fresno Bee that the incident occurred at roughly 11 p.m. Monday at the Campus Edge Apartments on Bulldog Lane. The victim told police who responded to a 911 call that when he approached his front door, a man accosted him from behind, said something unintelligible, then aimed a black semi-automatic handgun at him.

The suspect, described by witnesses as 5’10”, 170 pounds, and wearing a dark ski mask, a black sweatshirt, and dark pants, grabbed the student’s laptop bag and fired a bullet, shattering the victim’s iPhone in his pants pocket before he ran away.

Faris Alotaibi, the victim’s roommate, told ABC30, “He took a gun, after he took the backpack of my roommate, and he shot him in the leg but my roommate is very lucky. I looked at his jeans and it was torn open. He showed me the phone, the bullet was very clear, destroyed it and broke it into pieces.”

ABC30 reported that the Campus Edge Apartments has been lax with its security; according to Rebecca Goss, a neighbor who saw the suspect flee past her, said the gates to the complex have been open, day and night, for weeks. The management at the apartments confirmed that the gates have been open but protested that the problem was a card key issue.

Although the problem has apparently been rectified, Alotaibi said his roommate, the victim, has left town. Alotaibi said, “He is no longer interested in Fresno, he wants to drop all the courses and he will never come back.” He added, “The whole neighborhood, Bulldog Lane, is filled with gang members, drug addicts and bad people.”

In November 2012, Business Insider listed Fresno State as the 19^th most dangerous college in America.