Gun Report Triggers Campus Lockdown

Feb. 26, 2008 — -- A report of a suspicious man carrying a gun on the campus of Ferrum College in Ferrum, Va., triggered a daylong school lockdown.

The lockdown, which began around 8 a.m., was still in effect as of 4:06 p.m., when an alert message was sent out thanking students and employees for their patience and instructing them to continue to wait for updates from law enforcement.

Franklin County Sheriff Ewell Hunt said the lockdown followed a report from a campus housekeeper of a man carrying a firearm at a residence hall on campus. "At this time, no threats were made toward anybody, no incidents have occurred except the subject was seen with a firearm," Hunt said at a news conference held jointly with Jennifer L. Braaten, the president of Ferrum College. The man with the gun reportedly told the housekeeper to keep quiet about the weapon.

Multiple agencies responded this morning to the campus, Hunt said, where a command post was set up and authorities combed the campus and guided students to secure gathering areas.

The college is just 45 miles from the Virginia Tech campus, the site of April's mass shooting. The adjoining Ferrum Elementary School was also locked down as a precaution, Hunt said.

Administrators at Ferrum College sent a first text message through the campus emergency alert system at 8:13 a.m. warning students to stay indoors. A siren was also sounded, which Braaten described as the initial signal to students that something is happening on campus.

"When we heard of this incident earlier this morning we immediately put into effect all of our procedures," Braaten told ABC News.

At 8:43 a.m., a second message was sent announcing that the siren had been silenced but the campus was still in a lockdown situation. Phone numbers were also provided where students could obtain additional information. At 9:54 a.m., classes were canceled for the day. At 10:30 a.m., another message was sent indicating the campus is still on lockdown.

"In the best interest of the Ferrum College students, faculty and staff, we have put the college in a lockdown as the result of a possible situation on campus," a woman who would only identify herself as a media relations staff member told ABC News before the press conference.

The woman insisted that there had been "no incidents" and "no injuries."

"Authorities have been notified and are on campus and in control," the woman said.

Ferrum College is less than an hour's drive from Virginia Tech's Blacksburg campus, where Seung Hui Cho killed 32 students and faculty in the worst mass shooting in American history.

The lockdown comes one day after students at Northern Illinois University returned to campus after a shooting there Feb. 13 that ended with five students dead, more than a dozen injured and another campus gunman who like Cho took his own life.

Campus police at Stony Brook University on Long Island searched the campus Monday after a report of a man carrying a gun. Police issued an all-clear at 4 p.m. and classes proceeded as normal.