By Tracy Sears, WTVR CBS 6
RICHMOND, Va. -- Allegations of a student rape being recorded on Snapchat have gone viral among the campus community at Virginia Commonwealth University, the school's independent newspaper The Commonwealth Times first reported.
Commonwealth Times Editor Hannah Eason said that several social media posts talking about the alleged assault reached the newspaper on Monday.
"That's when I (direct messaged) the people who posted the original tweets and then from there we were just following it and kind of watching and reading the threads," Eason said. "Then more people sent it to me who weren't even going to VCU."
VCU Police say the department is aware of the allegations and is launching an investigation into the matter. However, details about the alleged rape, including the time and place of the assault, are unknown.
CBS 6 spoke to several students who say they were unaware of the alleged incident because they hadn't received any alerts or warnings from campus police, which is routine in several police investigations.
"One thing I've learned being my age is that usually when you see something, it may not always be the truth and you have to wait a while and sort of find out what the truth actually is," said student Joshua Gordon. "It takes some time looking into, so hopefully it will get done."
Eason says students are being reassured that the alleged assault is being taken seriously by campus police, but says there's a lot of anger in the student community over the lack of information.
"They're really concerned for the fact that this person hasn't been caught," Eason said. "No one has been charged that we know of."
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