A person is in custody following a shelter-in-place alert at American University due to a dangerous individual on or near campus.
The University sent the initial alert at 2:39 p.m. on Monday. The alert informed students who were outside to leave campus immediately. Those inside were instructed to hide in a secure location, lock doors and avoid windows.
At 3:01 p.m., a second AU Alert notified students via text that a person was in custody and campus could return to normal operations.
In a campus-wide email sent around 4:30 p.m., Chief Financial Officer, Vice President and Treasurer Bronté Burleigh-Jones and Assistant Vice President for University Police Services and Emergency Management Phil Morse assured the community that campus was safe following reports of a potential gun on campus.
According to the email, AU Police Department received a report of a student with a gun in Anderson Hall at 2:30 p.m. AUPD and the Metropolitan Police Department both responded to the report.
AUPD made contact with the student who had moved to the Hall of Science. The student voluntarily met with officers, allowing AUPD to confirm there was no gun. The student did not have the alleged gun at the time of being taken into custody, according to Assistant Vice President and Deputy Chief Communications Officer Elizabeth Deal.
“The student was detained until we determined there was no threat or crime,” according to Deal. “The potential gun was identified as a toy and confiscated.”
Burleigh-Jones and Morse reminded students that fake or toy guns are prohibited on campus.
Editor’s note: This story was updated on Oct. 23 to include additional comment from the University.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 5:00 p.m. on Oct. 14 to include the email from Burleigh-Jones and Morse.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
This article was edited by Tyler Davis and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks.
