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 incident was the first of its kind that the Boston University Police Department has responded to, BUPD spokesman Sgt. Jack St. Hilaire said.
BUPD received a call shortly after 12 p.m. reporting an approximately 22-year-old man who was in possession of a black magazine, or ammunition clip, which is a container that feeds ammunition into a gun, BUPD Chief Tom Robbins said.
Robbins said the caller was a student, and after finding the caller 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 man, who the witness first spotted in Staircase B of CAS, 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.’
BUPD and BPD officers searched CAS and its adjacent buildings for the suspect and patrolled the hallways when classes changed, 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.
‘We did not have an active shooter,’ St. Hilaire said. ‘We’re still investigating.’
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.
The original alert reached students again via email around 6:30 p.m. in order to keep students informed, St. Hilaire said. He estimated the increased police presence would continue for another day.
CAS freshman Gillian Mertens said she was in class in CAS when she received the alerts.
‘I was confused,’ she said. ‘I knew something bad was going on . . . but we didn’t have cell phone service. As we were leaving, everyone in my class was getting the messages and we were worried.’
Although the incident was a first for BUPD, St. Hilaire said BUPD has been training for situations like this since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. BUPD was the first university police force to train with BPD, and it additionally runs tactical drills.’
‘When you look back on Columbine and Virginia Tech, there was a complete lack of communication,’ he said. ‘We were all coordinated, and the communication was excellent. It shows that when it came to applying it, we were trained for this type of scenario.’
Daily Free Press staff writers Taylor Miles and Christina Braccio contributed reporting to this story.
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hahah that’s a good point – unless they bank on the student not being from BU which is unlikely.