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BREAKING NEWS: Lockdown at Va. Tech after gunman possibly spotted on campus
University alert system warns students, staff to stay indoors; person still at large
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44018807/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/#.Tjq3o2Hf0UM
Virginia Tech, site of a 2007 mass shooting, issued a campus lockdown Thursday after a man with a gun was possibly spotted on campus.
NBC affiliate WSLS confirmed that the campus siren system had been activated and all people on campus had been asked to remain indoors.
The university issued an alert on its website at 9:37 a.m. Thursday telling students and employees to stay inside and secure doors.
A subsequent crime alert said three children attending a camp on campus reported seeing a white man who appeared to have a gun covered with a cloth.
"Officers responded immediately to the area but found no one matching the description," the crime alert said.
"We have been told to stay put until we get more information,'' Virginia Tech communications officer Lynn Davis told CNN.
Police scheduled a press briefing on campus at 11 a.m. EDT.
Police searching for man
The alert said the man was reported near Dietrick Hall, a three-story dining facility. The dining hall is steps away from the dorm where the first shootings took place in 2007.
The man was described Thursday as white, standing 6-feet tall, wearing a blue-and-white shirt and gray shorts. He was described as clean shaven, according to the university website.
Police from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg and Christiansburg are searching for the man, as well as Montgomery County sheriff's deputies.
According to NBC's Pete Williams, federal officials are waiting to hear if they're needed on campus as they say there's been no verification that there was actually a gun on campus.
University fined
Federal authorities fined the school in March after ruling that administrators violated campus safety law by waiting too long to notify staff and students about a potential threat after two students were shot to death April 16, 2007, in West Ambler Johnston Hall, a dorm near the dining facility.
An email alert went out more than two hours later that day, about the time student Seung-Hui Cho was chaining shut the doors to a classroom building where he killed 30 more students and faculty and himself. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
The school's alert system also was activated in 2008, when an exploded cartridge from a nail gun produced sounds similar to gunfire near a campus dormitory. It was the first time the system was activated after the 2007 massacre. After the shootings, Virginia Tech started using text messages and other methods besides emails to warn students of danger.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44018807/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/#.Tjq3o2Hf0UM
Virginia Tech, site of a 2007 mass shooting, issued a campus lockdown Thursday after a man with a gun was possibly spotted on campus.
NBC affiliate WSLS confirmed that the campus siren system had been activated and all people on campus had been asked to remain indoors.
The university issued an alert on its website at 9:37 a.m. Thursday telling students and employees to stay inside and secure doors.
A subsequent crime alert said three children attending a camp on campus reported seeing a white man who appeared to have a gun covered with a cloth.
"Officers responded immediately to the area but found no one matching the description," the crime alert said.
"We have been told to stay put until we get more information,'' Virginia Tech communications officer Lynn Davis told CNN.
Police scheduled a press briefing on campus at 11 a.m. EDT.
Police searching for man
The alert said the man was reported near Dietrick Hall, a three-story dining facility. The dining hall is steps away from the dorm where the first shootings took place in 2007.
The man was described Thursday as white, standing 6-feet tall, wearing a blue-and-white shirt and gray shorts. He was described as clean shaven, according to the university website.
Police from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg and Christiansburg are searching for the man, as well as Montgomery County sheriff's deputies.
According to NBC's Pete Williams, federal officials are waiting to hear if they're needed on campus as they say there's been no verification that there was actually a gun on campus.
University fined
Federal authorities fined the school in March after ruling that administrators violated campus safety law by waiting too long to notify staff and students about a potential threat after two students were shot to death April 16, 2007, in West Ambler Johnston Hall, a dorm near the dining facility.
An email alert went out more than two hours later that day, about the time student Seung-Hui Cho was chaining shut the doors to a classroom building where he killed 30 more students and faculty and himself. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
The school's alert system also was activated in 2008, when an exploded cartridge from a nail gun produced sounds similar to gunfire near a campus dormitory. It was the first time the system was activated after the 2007 massacre. After the shootings, Virginia Tech started using text messages and other methods besides emails to warn students of danger.
UPDATE: BLACKSBURG, Va. — Virginia Tech lifted a campus lockdown Thursday afternoon after an extensive police search for a man with a gun supposedly seen by three teens turned up empty.
"The campus alert is lifted. There will continue to be a large police presence on campus today," the university said in a notice posted at 2:41 p.m. "Police have not received nor discovered additional information about a person possibly carrying a weapon beyond that reported this morning."
"The campus alert is lifted. There will continue to be a large police presence on campus today," the university said in a notice posted at 2:41 p.m. "Police have not received nor discovered additional information about a person possibly carrying a weapon beyond that reported this morning."
We do the text messages, emails, etc as well, which is so nice to have. Any alarm that goes off and I get a text saying exactly what is happening on campus. Though some students don't input their phone numbers, but I'm all for getting the text message alerts.
Again!?! wow. I think everyone is freaked out from the last problem they had. I'd hate to actually get a real threat alert from campus.
OMG!!
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