[media-credit name=’BEN CLASSON/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]

In light of the recent homicide of University of Wisconsin junior Brittany Zimmermann, city and university officials reassured more than 200 students, residents and retirees Saturday afternoon that Madison is still a safe city.

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz said Madison has an “extraordinarily low” average of five murders per year, adding that is “cold comfort for those of you who knew [Brittany Zimmermann].”

City Council President Mike Verveer, District 4, told the overcrowded room of his own struggles sleeping because of the “overwhelming sense of grief” he feels for the murder of his West Doty Street neighbor.

Verveer said he knows police are doing “everything they possibly can to bring Brittany’s killer or killers to justice.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has joined forces with the Madison and University of Wisconsin police departments in the homicide investigation of Zimmermann, 21, found slain in her apartment at 517 W. Doty St. Wednesday around 1 p.m.

Police do not have suspects for Zimmerman’s murder, but have received more than 75 leads through Crime Stoppers, a police report said.

According to the report, police have identified and spoken with many of the people seen going door-to-door asking for money on the day of the homicide. Police have a sketch of the man who entered a West Washington Avenue house and asked the only resident home for $40 to fix a flat tire. Bassett neighborhood residents have also reported a man knocking on their front door asking for $40.

Madison Police Department Lt. Joe Balles said these events are “something we are very interested in.”

Joel DeSpain, MPD public information officer, said detectives are gathering as much evidence as possible from Zimmermann’s home.

“Items with potential evidentiary value are being expedited through the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory,” DeSpain said.

At the neighborhood meeting, UW Dean of Students Lori Berquam encouraged students to keep talking about the issue.

“We are our own best resource,” she said, imploring students to take cautions for each other.

Cieslewicz said he lived at 542 W. Doty St. when he was a student at UW and Zimmermann’s murder is personally tragic for him.

“Murder is an affront to the entire community,” he said. “We need to come together as a community. We cannot rush to judgment, and we cannot prod for information.”

MPD Captain Mary Schauf declined to answer questions about details of the ongoing investigation, adding releasing details could compromise the outcome of the case.

Schauf said more than 20 full-time detectives and investigative specialists are processing the area, following leads and prioritizing bits of information coming in through Crime Stoppers.

“We want to be very slow, and we want to be very methodical,” Schauf said.

Longtime Madison residents and students were anxiously seeking answers Saturday about the two downtown murders in the last four months: Zimmerman and Joel Marino, 31, who was stabbed in his 714 W. Shore Drive home Jan. 28 and found dead in an alley close to his home.

“There’s a murderer out there,” a neighbor of Marino said. “What’s being done about it?”

DeSpain said police have DNA from the knife found in Marino’s house and will be able to compare it to evidence found in Zimmermann’s apartment but “are not making any sort of connection between the two cases other than they were both random acts of violence.”

Balles addressed the concerns many members of the audience had with the growing number of homeless people in the downtown area.

A UW senior said she lives across the street from the Badger Bus Depot on South Bedford Street where groups of homeless people “come in from Milwaukee and just hang out” for long periods of time.

“Efforts are underway to monitor the bus depot,” he said, adding police know every transient resident in the city and that some lived in Madison for 25 years. “There is almost a welcome-wagon-like approach when a new one comes,” Balles said.

Cieslewicz said dealing with homelessness is a very difficult question for Madison.

“We have always been a compassionate city,” he said. The mayor also said a plan to address problems in Brittingham Park, along West Washington Avenue and Monona Bay, will be released next week.