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HERALD
WKUHERALD.COM
COLLEGE HEIGHTS
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Thursday, October 23, 2008 Volume 84, Number 16 Western Kentucky University Bowling Green, Kentucky
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FIGHTS & FRENZY RECALL
Misinformation leads to panic on campus COREY PAUL Herald reporter There’s a fight at South Campus. Police get a call that shots are fired. A fight erupts at PearceFord Tower about 30 minutes later. Then another report of gunfire. What does Western do? In a post-Virginia Tech society, it opts to err on the side of extreme caution. Officials issue stark warnings through the Emergency Management System. Text messages, intercom broadcasts and e-mails. Besides a storm or two, this is the first time the EMS alerts students. SEE RECALL,
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Gunfire unconfirmed, investigation continues MICHELLE DAY Herald reporter Officials say it appears that the worst thing that happened on campus yesterday was a fight. But some students still claim that shots were fired on campus yesterday morning. Five students were taken into custody in connection with a fight on South Campus yesterday morning that continued to the south end of the main campus, said Howard Bailey, vice president for student affairs, at a press conference. Police said those people have been released, said Bob Skipper, director of media relations. Police received calls yesterday morning that there were armed men on South Campus and shots had been fired there and near Pearce-Ford Tower, Bailey said. SEE REPORT,
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REACTION
Campus, community voice concerns MARIANNE HALE Herald reporter
BRYAN ANSELM/HERALD
Robert Brooks became increasingly worried yesterday. “It was very much fearful for my son,” said Robert Brooks of his reaction to hearing violence had broken out at Western. His son, Jon Brooks, is a Greenville sophomore. Police took five students into custody after fights broke out and shots were allegedly fired on South Campus and near Pearce-Ford Tower. Campus buildings were secured, and Western’s classes were canceled.
Sgt. Shawn Helbig of the Bowling Green Police subdues a female student after she refused to cooperate on Wednesday.
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RECAP 11:25 a.m. Bowling Green Police receive a report of a physical fight at South Campus. 11:40 a.m. Police receive a report that four males involved in the fight are in a building on South Campus.
12:30 p.m. Officials send a text message saying that armed men were reported on South Campus. 11:48 a.m. Police receive a report of shots fired on South Campus and later receive a report of shots fired near Pearce-Ford Tower.
12:47 p.m. Officials send an e-mail saying there is an incident on South Campus involving guns.
12:44 p.m. Officials announce over the outdoor warning system that there is immediate danger and students should seek shelter.
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12:48 p.m. Officials send a second text message saying that shots were fired near PFT. 12:52 p.m. Officials send an e-mail saying there is a report of shots being fired at or around PFT.
3:02 p.m. Officials send a text message saying main campus was given the all clear.
3:16 p.m. Officials announce the all clear over the outdoor warning system. 4 p.m. Officials host a press conference, saying there is no evidence that shots were fired or armed men had been on campus.
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October 23, 2008
COLLEGE HEIGHTS HERALD
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Students look out their dorm windows as police search for suspected gunmen on campus yesterday.
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The policemen move the students to the Preston Center for questioning. (Ree-see) is the only one in cuffs. After about 30 minutes, police put the blue-hatted man in the back of a Bowling Green Police cruiser. He was one of five students detained, but not arrested. (Ree-see) is released. She declines another interview. The three students with whom the detainee chatted by the clock-tower are also released. Nashville freshmen Corin Jones and Augustus Quaye are two of them. Both say they were complaining about the lockdown and chatting about the PFT melee before police approached them. They witnessed the fight but say they weren’t involved and don’t know what it was about. Quaye says he went at PFT to meet Jones for lunch. Both say they play intramural flag football with the bluehatted man. They say his name is “(An-twahn),” but can’t spell it and don’t know his last name or hometown. “He doesn’t play very much,” Jones says. Police maintain a barricade around PFT while officers search rooms. Outside, students and officers relay rumors of a gunman. It’s one of many that appears to have fallen flat. At 3:02, Western issues a final text message: “This is an all clear message. All main campus and BGCC classes have been canceled for the remainder of the day.” At 4:00, Western officials gather in Mass Media and Technology Hall to address the swath of newspeople that the warnings drew. Bailey says the South Campus fight had carried over from a brawl at a Saturday night dance hosted by Black Men of Western, a mentoring group. The fights at South Campus and PFT are connected. None of the students were from the mentoring group. Bailey admits the threats were probably invalid. And pressmen press. “What you did is put out rumors effectively,” one reporter says. “What we did was make the right decision on behalf of the safety of the college and community.” Bailey thanks the local, state and federal agencies that responded. After the press conference, two students tell officials they saw a gun and heard shots. The investigation is ongoing. Bailey says Western will assess its response to the calls. Did Western cry wolf? How might its officials respond next time? How might its students? Was the potential for violence worth all this cost, and all this panic?
Those claims appear to be untrue, he said. At least four of the five detainees are students at South Campus, Bailey said. There haven’t been any arrests. After the press conference, Louisville freshmen Sarah Pehlke and Missy Seewer approached campus Police Chief Robert Deane and Maj. Mike Wallace, field operations commander, and said that they heard shots fired. The students said they were in Bemis Lawrence Hall when they saw a fight taking place outside. Pehlke and Seewer said they saw a male lift a gun and heard two shots. The crowd of 50 to 60 people that had gathered around the fight then scattered before police arrived, they said. Deane and Wallace declined to comment immediately. Wallace couldn’t be reached for comment later in the day. President Gary Ransdell said Pehlke and Seewer have been questioned, but their claims haven’t been validated. People closer to the scene didn’t agree that shots were fired, and no one else has stepped forward, he said. The students also couldn’t identify anyone involved. University officials met last night to brief Ransdell on the incident, Skipper said. Ransdell had been on vacation and returned to campus yesterday night. Ransdell will discuss the incident at a press conference today at 10 a.m., Skipper said. The press conference will probably take place in Downing University Center. Ransdell said the press conference will provide information on the incident based on what officials learned overnight. There were reports of four people — Howard Bailey with weapons at South Campus earlier Vice president for student affairs in the day, according to a police officer on the scene. Campus, state and Bowling Green police all reported to the scene. South Campus was evacuated, and police conducted a room-byroom search, said an officer at the scene. One person was injured while trying to break up the fight at PFT. He was taken in an ambulance to Bowling Green Medical Center, said Robbin Taylor, vice president for public affairs. Deane requested that the campus be secured after hearing about the reports, meaning the doors to buildings were locked, but no one was kept from leaving, Taylor said. Police set up a perimeter around PFT and stopped students from getting through. Two text messages were sent to students. The first said that there were armed men on South Campus, and the second said that there were shots fired near PFT. The all clear was given at about 3 p.m., and all classes were cancelled yesterday afternoon. Officials think the incident was a continuation of a fight at a social event on Saturday night hosted by Black Men of Western, Bailey said. No organization members were involved. Bailey said, at this point, he doesn’t think Western did anything wrong by reporting that shots were fired because that was the information available at the time. “This institution is committed to the safety of all of our citizens. We are always going to do what is in the best interest of those citizens,” he said. There’s no evidence that the fights were gang-related, Bailey said. The detained subjects don’t have previous records. In September, there were shots fired at PFT, but no one was injured. Students weren’t notified of that incident until more than eight hours after it happened. Bailey said the two incidents weren’t related. Ransdell said he’s pleased with the university’s reaction. “We took what information we had and acted efficiently, promptly and thoroughly,” he said. “The message here is that aggressive behavior will be taken seriously, and it’s got consequences that go way beyond the individuals involved.” Western’s trying to sort fact from fiction to decide who was actually involved, he said.
Reach Corey Paul at news@chherald.com.
Reach Michelle Day at news@chherald.com.
ALEX SLITZ/HERALD
Bowling Green police officers secured the campus yesterday after reports of gunfire.
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FROM FRONT PAGE
News of a shooting breaks nationally. Students make and receive thousands of phone calls to relieve worries of loved ones. It floods cell phone networks, and many lose service. Rumors fly: PFT is on lockdown while police search for an armed suspect inside. Someone’s shot. No, wait, someone broke his arm, breaking up a fight. So what really happened? Much less than you heard: Western officials later say there are no confirmed shots or weapons on campus. The guy who broke his arm stopping a fight? False. Someone suffered minor injuries in the fight. Howard Bailey, vice president of student affairs, later shakes his hand. But students are convinced otherwise for hours Wednesday, as panic and policemen blanket the campus. “They’re shooting now,” a student on South Lawn says urgently into her cell phone. “They were fighting first.” She’s too afraid to give her name. But this woman, who friends call (Ree-see), heard the same warnings issued to everyone else. At 12:30 p.m., 42 minutes after shots are reported: “Armed men have been reported on WKU South Campus. Please stay clear of the area.” At 12:48: “Shots fired near PFT seek shelter immediately.” Western didn’t confirm any of that before warning students. But (Ree-see) doesn’t know. She can’t get into her dorm. It’s on lockdown, so she stays with friends on the grass. About 20 yards away, Bowling Green police officer Jamie Peerce makes a discovery. One of the suspects, he says into his radio, is approaching the Downing University Center. The man is wearing a light blue toboggan and a black jacket with white trim. Moments later, three policemen approach the Guthrie Bell Tower with a pistol and two AR-15 assault rifles. “Get on the ground,” they shout at four students, including the blue-hatted man. They point their guns and the students comply. Then (Ree-see) says something to the officers. The mob of about 20 onlookers can’t hear it, but it makes one officer visibly angry. “You want to be a part of it?” the policeman says. He aims a rifle at her head. “Get on the ground,” he says. She doesn’t. So he pushes her down, smacking her head against stone. “Get the f--- off me,” she screams. “Get the f--- off me.”
FROM FRONT PAGE
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“This institution is committed to the safety of all of our citizens. We are always going to do what is in the best interest of those citizens.”
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REACTION
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RESPONSE
FROM FRONT PAGE
Officials later said there was no evidence of weapons or gunfire on campus. Robert Brooks said he became more worried when he couldn’t get through to his son’s cell phone. When he finally talked to his son, Robert Brooks told him to lock the door of his PFT dorm room and not leave until someone said it would be safe to come out, Robert Brooks said. “From the people I’ve talked to, no one is scared,” Jon Brooks said. “But I have friends from Murray who know people who were crying.” Across the street from PFT, McNeill Elementary School was on lockdown, said Marsha Ingram, principal of the school. Teachers didn’t tell students exactly what was happening, she said. The students remained calm throughout the lockdown. Their parents didn’t remain as calm though, she said. “The phone was ringing off the hook,” she said. Parents calmed down when they learned students were OK and the school was on lockdown. Students at South Campus had to evacuate their classrooms, Cincinnati freshman Terrance Phillips said. “I was scared when they told us to evacuate,” Phillips said. Rumors about the incident circulated through campus, Elizabethtown freshman Andrea Daniels said. “I think the situation was slightly blown out of proportion,” Daniels said of all the different stories. Greensburg freshman Austin Reliford said he heard a drug battle had escalated. He heard people were armed on South Campus, he said. Julie Harris, admissions assistant in the graduate students office, said she was most scared of not knowing what would happen next. “I’m really overwhelmed and scared,” she said after crying to her husband on the phone yesterday afternoon. Lori Weires, whose daughter, Alex Weires, is a freshman at Western, said she thought Western handled the situation well. Alex Weires is from Buckner. “I think the school did the right thing,” Weires said. “It’s better to be safe than sorry.” Robert Brooks said he had never thought about something like this happening at Western. Weires worries that it can happen anywhere, she said. “It’s not something you used to worry about,” she said. “These days, you realize it can happen any time.” Reach Marianne Hale at news@chherald.com.
October 23, 2008
Western pleased with emergency response
MANDY SIMPSON Herald reporter Rumors spilled. Students held hostage at South Campus. Shots fired near PFT. Armed men reported on South Campus. Student shot at Western. Unconfirmed reports poured from police radios, TVs, Web sites and cell phones yesterday after a fight broke out on South Campus and moved to Pearce-Ford Tower. But university officials and media outlets were satisfied with their reaction to events after the frenzy died down. This situation provided a real test of Western’s crisis communication system, and it prevailed, President Gary Ransdell said. The outdoor warning system advised those on campus to seek shelter. The university sent out emergency text messages to students based on information from 911 calls and police reports, Media Relations Director Bob Skipper said. The first message stated that armed gunmen were reported on South Campus, and the second stated that shots were fired near PFT. But police found no evidence of weapons or gunshots on campus, said Howard Bailey, vice president of student affairs. Bowling Green Mayor Elaine Walker agreed to give Western transcripts of yesterday’s 911 calls to authenticate the calls that triggered the text messages, Ransdell said. University officials reviewed the transcripts overnight and will announce their findings today, he said. “In this age of instant communication, you don’t always have time to validate what’s factual and what isn’t,” Ransdell said. Skipper said Western preferred to act with the information available rather than possibly endanger students while waiting to receive official verification. Robbin Taylor, vice president for public affairs, agreed. “If we made the decision to wait to confirm that shots had been fired, what would the news have been then?” she said. “People would be asking, ‘Why didn’t you?’” The text messages reached students, even though many cell phones had trouble receiving and making calls because
text messaging operates on a different system than voice calls, Skipper said. He said faculty and staff secured all buildings. They opened doors of campus buildings and instructed students to come indoors. Students could leave if they wished, Skipper said. Eva Floyd, assistant professor of music, told students in her choir class that they weren’t allowed to leave, Nashville senior Elizabeth Thornton said. Students remained in the classroom for nearly three hours. Thornton said she felt safe, but spending several hours in her classroom was overkill. “They could have at least let us know what was going on, because no one knew,” she said. Skipper said he was pleased with the university’s reaction, but disappointed with media coverage. “It seemed like a lot of rumors were reported in the media that were unconfirmed, and that’s disappointing,” he said. Skipper said he heard rumors of hostage situations and seriously injured students. The media is quick to report these rumors and too impatient to wait for facts, he said. Fox 41 News reporter Bennett Haeberle said he kept his coverage of the events vague to avoid reporting false information until the only press conference at 4 p.m. “The impetus is on us to replace rumors with fact,” he said. “There’s more to reporting than being the first to state the obvious. You have to make sure the obvious is correct.” Media coverage was fair considering instant media exposure is a way of life, Ransdell said Media outlets including The Courier-Journal and The New York Times are now examining Western’s response and what the Courier-Journal Web site calls “erroneous” text messages. The university is doing the same. “I think we’re still in that assessment mode,” Bailey said. Western officials are trying to sort fact from fiction, but Ransdell said he’s certain the university responded appropriately. “If you have reason to believe that danger exists, you keep your people safe,” he said. “We have to see what we learn tonight.” Reach Mandy Simpson at news@chherald.com.
MATT FIELDS-JOHNSON/HERALD
JOY LEWIS/HERALD
(Above) Students listen to the press conference in the lobby of the Mass Media and Technology Hall. (Top) Bowling Green Police Officer A. Smith takes a suspect into custody after a suspected shooting on campus Wednesday. (Left) Paula Drake and her daughter, Maddie Drake, 6, of Greenville, wait for Paula’s daughter, Jasmine Bouchard, who lives in Pearce-Ford Tower. Paula said she didn’t waste time to find out if her daughter was OK. “Within 10 minutes I was out the door,” she said. LANCE BOOTH/HERALD
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