Sightings lead to ASU lockdown

Police get calls on suspicious man, possibly with gun, around campus

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

By Marcie Young and Greg Lacour
Charlotte Observer Staff Writers

BOONE -- Appalachian State University officials locked their campus down for 80 minutes Monday evening after receiving reports of a man with a gun near campus.

The lockdown at the campus in the N.C. mountains was ended a little more than an hour later without incident. ASU and Boone police did not find anyone with a gun, and police said Monday night they weren't certain the man, first spotted by a student in off-campus apartments, was armed.

The unidentified man remained at large late Monday. Classes are expected to resume as normal today.

The university canceled all Monday night classes and ordered buildings locked at 5:10 p.m. after receiving reports that a man with a gun was spotted earlier off-campus.

Chancellor Kenneth Peacock and other officials lifted the lockdown at 6:32 p.m., after campus police told them the man had not been seen again, said Lynn Drury, associate vice chancellor for communications at the university of about 16,000 students.

Drury said she didn't know how many people were forced to stay inside during the lockdown. Most faculty and staff had gone home for the evening, and most classes were over.

The university didn't want to take chances, Drury said, especially given the fatal campus shootings in the past year at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University.

"Given the same set of circumstances, I think we'd do the same thing over again," Drury said. "We can't be too cautious with the safety of our students, faculty and staff."

The first report regarding the man came in at 3:45 p.m. from an off-campus apartment on Hill Street, Boone police said, when the student who lived there returned home. The student told police that he saw a white male in a black Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" T-shirt, dark jacket, ski mask and red and green tennis shoes in his home.

The student said he also thought he saw a small black handgun.

The man ran from the apartment, police said, in the direction of the campus.

The first campus alert, which included a description of the man, went out at 4:14 p.m.; another went out at 4:28 p.m., Drury said.

Then, a little before 5 p.m., campus police received two reports, Drury said: one that the man was spotted at Sanford Hall, which contains the English and foreign languages departments, and another that he was at Welborn Cafeteria at the center of campus.

The two sightings prompted the lockdown, Drury said.

Campus police responded immediately and found no sign of the man, she said.

The lockdown came just hours after school officials sent a campus-wide e-mail to students updating them about plans for an emergency messaging service, said sophomore Lauren Hill of New Bern, who lives at the Appalachian Panhellenic Hall on campus.

"It was kind of strange because they just sent out an e-mail this morning," she said. "I was pleased with the way the university responded and kept us well-informed."

Hill and her roommate, junior Sarah Hord of Hickory, spent the evening inside their building while campus and Boone police asked people on campus to remain alert and report suspicious activity or sightings of the man.

The quick campus response was reassuring, Hord said.

"I wasn't scared and didn't have that feeling that this was going to be like Virginia Tech," Hord said. "It wasn't that severe, and by letting everyone know what was happening and making people aware was the best way to respond."

Many universities are deploying such systems in a response to last year's shootings at Virginia Tech, where a student gunman killed 32 people and himself.

"Everything's back to normal in the morning," Drury said. "I hope."

All content © THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER and may not be republished without permission.

UPDATE on story:
An Appalachian State University senior's attempt to avoid paying for a damaged apartment door led him to fabricate a story of a masked gunman in a Pink Floyd T-shirt running toward the Boone campus, police said Tuesday. That prompted authorities to lock down the university for more than an hour Monday evening.

Haney told the story of the gunman in a series of television interviews. It wasn't until Tuesday morning, when he was grilled by a Boone detective, that Haney conceded that it had all been a hoax -- a tale that got away from him. --The News & Observer