Police flooded the College of Arts and Sciences to investigate the report of a suspicious and potentially armed man Wednesday afternoon, but the search was inconclusive, officials said.
The Boston University Police Department received a call shortly after 12 p.m. reporting an approximately 22-year-old man who was in possession of an ammunition clip, which is a container that feeds ammunition into the chambering mechanism of a gun, BUPD Chief Tom Robbins said.
Robbins said the person who called in the report was a student, and after identifying the caller and finding him credible, all BUPD officers responded to CAS. Boston Police Department officers, including a SWAT team, also responded to the scene.
The witness reported that the suspicious man had short, brown hair and wore a green coat with a fur collar, BU spokesman Colin Riley said. The witness also reported a bullet inside the ammunition clip.
‘We responded immediately,’ Riley said. ‘We had a description of the individual, we went throughout the building and we could not find that individual. There will be elevated presence of BUPD in this location and on campus looking for that, but the scene has been cleared.’
BUPD and BPD officers searched CAS and its adjacent buildings and patrolled the hallways when classes changed, searching for the suspect, Robbins said.
The incident happened while classes were still taking place. Robbins said BUPD decided against evacuating the building to increase police odds of locating the suspect and keep students calm.
‘We decided not to evacuate the building because we had that one report with that one clip, and we didn’t want to cause panic,’ he said. ‘But also, if you evacuate the building based on that information, you’ll have large numbers of people pouring out of the building, and your ability to locate a suspect is diminished.’
Because the man has not been found, BUPD is unable to confirm whether the report was accurate or whether the man was in possession of an ammunition clip, Robbins said.
‘There was an adequate response for the safety of our students,’ he said. ‘We did a very thorough search, and I think that this event is concluded, but I will still leave officers around throughout the day.’
A BU Emergency Alert sent at 12:49 p.m. informed the BU community of police activity in the area of 705 Commonwealth Ave. Another alert reached students at 1:24 p.m., stating that although the activity had concluded, BUPD presence would remain in the area.
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Since when is this a danger or a crime?<p/>He probably was hunting and left the ammo in his coat pocket, then found it and was playing with it.