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Students shaken up after false shooting threat
Officers spent part of Friday afternoon searching the campus of Stanford University after a report of an active shooter was called in. The emergency was called off several hours later after the university said officers were unable to find any evidence of a credible threat.
STANFORD, Calif. - Officers spent part of Friday afternoon searching the campus of Stanford University after a report of an active shooter was called in. The emergency was called off several hours later after the university said officers were unable to find any evidence of a credible threat.
"I was terrified because I had never been through a situation remotely like this," said Stanford student Pablo Bermudez. "I got a call from my brother, we’re both from Spain, from Barcelona, so this is highly unusual…He’s like ‘go home right now, and lock your door.’"
The warning went out after Palo Alto police dispatch fielded a call from an unidentified person just after 12:30 p.m. The caller claimed to be at the entrance to campus, and said they intended to "commit a shooting."
"I was just going past the oval in the main quad and there were officers with guns just walking around, extremely unusual for this campus," said student Phillipe Clark.
Stanford Public Safety officers spent several hours searching the campus. Meantime, students say several events and classes were canceled.
"We just ended up canceling it, just in case something would really happen," said student Ming Xian Gu.
"I know some midterms…some of them are being rescheduled because people feel generally unsafe to be outside right now," said student Yeli.
Just after 3 p.m., the university declared the emergency over; an apparent false threat.
"I was really scared. I think we know in the US, we have a large number of mass shootings pretty regularly, and there was a shooting at Berkeley recently, so I very much thought the threat was very real and very scary," said Yeli.
Last week, a gunman was arrested after firing nine rounds on Cal’s campus. No one was injured, but the incident only compounded the concerns of some Stanford students as the warnings went out Friday.
"Especially a lot of international students I heard were getting messages from their parents to go back to their dorm," said Clark.
"My whole day changed from being in the library, and going to the cafeteria, to being locked in my room," said Bermudez.