VILLANOVA, Pa. (AP) — False experiences of lively shooters at Villanova College and the College of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Thursday led to panic and short-term lockdowns on the two campuses as they kicked off their fall semesters.
In Pennsylvania somebody referred to as 911 at about 4:30 p.m. reporting a shooter in a Villanova regulation college constructing with at the very least one wounded sufferer. College students obtained texts from the college’s alert system saying “ACTIVE SHOOTER on VU campus. Transfer to safe location. Lock/barricade doorways.”
The varsity’s president later mentioned it was a hoax.
“In the present day, as we’re celebrating Orientation Mass to welcome our latest Villanovans and their households to our group, panic and terror ensued,” the Rev. Peter M. Donohue mentioned in an announcement. “Mercifully, nobody was injured and we now understand it was a merciless hoax.”
About 4 hours earlier, the College of Tennessee at Chattanooga locked down its campus, telling college students: “Potential lively shooter within the College Middle or Library. Run. Disguise. Combat. Extra data forthcoming.”
After a number of regulation enforcement companies together with the FBI responded alongside native fireplace and emergency crews, the lockdown was lifted lower than an hour later. College officers mentioned there was no proof of any risk.
At Villanova, the place new pupil orientation was underway and lessons start subsequent week, a name got here in reporting a person with an AR-15-style weapon, Delaware County spokesperson Michael Connolly mentioned in an announcement. There have been additionally “a number of” calls with gunshot-like sounds within the background, and about half-hour after the preliminary name, somebody referred to as to report a gunshot wound.
The preliminary report despatched police scouring the campus and even had some regulation enforcement officers suggesting they believed there was a shooter.
“I do know in the present day was each mum or dad’s nightmare and each pupil’s greatest worry,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro mentioned on the social platform X.
Shapiro instructed state police to make use of all instruments out there “to search out the particular person or individuals who referred to as on this faux risk and maintain them accountable.”
Courtenay Harris Bond was strolling close to the regulation college along with her husband and son, a freshman, when phrase unfold of the supposed capturing.
“Actually robust method to begin freshman yr at school,” she mentioned shortly after getting the all-clear to go away the bookstore the place the household spent the lockdown.
Villanova is a personal Catholic college within the Philadelphia suburbs. It borders Decrease Merion Township and Radnor Township on the heart of town’s rich Foremost Line neighborhoods.
The Augustinian college acquired additional consideration this yr because the alma mater of latest Pope Leo XIV.
Casey reported from Boston, and Ramer from Harmony, New Hampshire. Related Press journalists Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Mingson Lau and Tassanee Vejpongsa in Villanova; Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee; and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed.