The “cruel scam” about the active shooters present at the University of Villanova and the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, United States, led to panic and temporary lock on both campuses when they started their autumn semesters.
According to the Associated Press, the call was discussed at 911 around 16:30 in Pennsylvania and reported a shooter in the building of the Faculty of Law Villanova with at least one injured victim.
Students reportedly received texts from a school warning system who said “an active shooter on the VU campus. Move to secure location. Locking/barricade doors.”
“Cruel scam”
The president of the school later said it was a scam.
“Today, when we celebrate the orientation mass to welcome our latest Villaans and their families in our community, panic and terror followed,” Reverend said Peter M. Donohue. “Love, no one was injured, and now we know it was a cruel scam.”
About four hours earlier the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga closed its campus and told the students: “A possible active shooter in the university center or library. Running. Hide. Fight. More information.”
After several law enforcement authorities, including the FBI, responded with local fire and emergency crews, the locking was canceled less than an hour later. School officials said there was no evidence of any threat.
In Villanov, where a new orientation of students and class started next week, the initial report sent a police examination of the campus and even had some criminal proceedings, suggesting that they believe that there is a shooter.
“He’s in one of these buildings.” The enforcement of the right for the whole area of three states is here. And we go from door to door, room in the room, if we have to take this situation under control and make this campus safe, ”said the district prosecutor of the Delaware Jack Stolrsteimer WPVI-TV.
At a press conference, Stollsteimer later stated that the authorities would conduct a complete investigation.
“If it was a truly cruel scam, it is a crime,” he said.
“This is every parent’s nightmare, isn’t you sending your child to college, sometimes the first day, and you get a warning that there may be a shooter on the area,” he said.
Courtenay Harris Bond walked near a legal school with his husband and son, a newcomer when the word of the supposed shooting spread.
“A really difficult way to start with the first year at college,” she said shortly after she had made her versatile a bookstore where the family spent locking.
Villanova is a private Catholic university in the suburbs of Philadelphia. It borders with Lower Merion Township and Radnor Township in the middle of the rich city districts.
This year, the Augustinian school gained special attention as the alma mater of the new Pope Leo XIV.
(With the entry from agencies)
(Tagstotranslate) Villanova
