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| This is what the school website looked for much of the incident. |
On Monday November 4th, Lynn called me at 12:09 p.m. while I was at the office. She informed me that she and Richard were safe and no longer on campus but something weird was going on. She had arrived to pick him up and was going to meet him at the Student Center.
She parked the car nearby and as she walked toward the building, a loud siren started to sound and there was an announcement to get inside immediately and stay away from windows. Lynn retreated to her nearby car just as Richard arrived. He hopped in and they got out of there. She called me to let me know they were safe so I wouldn't worry if I heard/saw anything on the news. But she had no idea what was going on.
My initial thought was that someone screwed up and a drill had inadvertently gone live. However, when I went to the school website, it was gone and had been replaced by a stark white screen with blood red letter screaming "Campus Emergency" (see picture above).
The whole thing lasted about three (3) hours. The information didn't change much for essentially the first hour and half. Something about a suspicious person on campus that looked to be carrying a sword and may have a gun. The next update indicated that a suspect had been "contained" in a dormitory, James Hall. (see map above), For a while, there was the implication that there might be hostages.
The police were reported to be onsite only they looked more like the military (see pictures above). Ironically, an active shooter training
workshop was being conducted a few miles away.
After a couple hours, a number of students got bored and started leaving the buildings. Finally, it was announced that three (3) people of "student-age" were in custody. Later, it was announced that the suspicious person was actually a student returning from a weekend at another campus. He was still dressed in his Halloween costume (a ninja fighter) and had gone to his dorm to drop off his stuff and change clothes. For the first hour or so, he was unaware that he was the center of attention. They eventually charged him with breach of peace.
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| The suspicious person taking elevator to his dorm room. |
The next day, the university released security pictures of the student. They were quickly able to pinpoint point his location because of his security swipe card needed to enter the building. The
Huffington Post had a pretty good summary (but inaccurately indicated a BB gun was present).
As you can see from the picture, the student is wearing a hoodie. What may not be apparent is that he is the same race as
Trayvon Martin. So far the race card has not been played even though there are some striking similarities (although no one was killed at CCSU).
Links:
http://www.ct.gov/demhs/ical/eventDetail_page.asp?date_ID=C9CECBCFCD83CDCACC
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/06/ccsu-lockdown-ninja-costume_n_4222689.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trayvon_Martin
