A student pulled a gun from her car in an effort to defend herself and a friend from an armed robbery early Thursday morning, the student said.Lauren Prasek said she and Rayanne Romero were attacked by a man with a gun at about 2 a.m. Thursday in the parking lot of Snookies Bar and Grill on South Hulen Street.

Prasek, a senior fashion merchandising major, said the parking lot was empty when she and Romero, a senior communication studies major, left the bar, but that when they walked toward her car, a man who had been crouching beside the dumpster near her car ran out and attacked Romero.

“He ran and slammed my friend against the car and had a gun in her stomach,” Prasek said.

Though Prasek said she was not carrying a purse, she said the man then started yelling at her and Romero to hand over their purses.

“She (Romero) was pretty shaken up,” Prasek said, explaining that Romero did not immediately give the man her purse.

Prasek said she then reached into her car and took out a gun that she is licensed to carry. She said the license does not allow her to bring the gun into bars but that, “it happened to be in my car, so I took it out.”

She said that once she pointed the gun at the man, he took Romero’s purse, pointed his gun toward her and then ran away from the parking lot.

A police helicopter immediately came to search the surrounding area, though police have not located the man, Prasek said.

Prasek said the man took Romero’s purse, phone and wallet, and that he had made purchases with Romero’s credit card before she and Romero had returned home Thursday morning.

Sergeant Kelly Ham said the TCU Police became involved because the crime took place in such close proximity to campus. Also, Romero and Prasek wanted to alert students of the incident.

Ham said he has not yet spoken to the Fort Worth detective assigned to the case because he was in court all day Thursday.

Ham said TCU “will have no part in the investigation because it is not in (its) jurisdiction.”

A crime alert was sent to all students Thursday morning, which described the man as a small-built, white male in his early twenties who was wearing jeans, a sweatshirt and a red bandanna over his face.