SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. - The University of Rhode Island was under lockdown for about 2½ hours Thursday after reports of someone with a gun on its rural South Kingstown campus, but police found no gunman, weapon or danger at any time.
Rhode Island State Police Capt. Frank Castellone said state police received calls at 11:22 a.m. reporting a person with a gun in a high-rise building that houses several academic departments and classrooms. According to police, a female professor believed she heard someone in her lecture hall say, “I’m a good guy and I have a gun.”
“At that point things got crazy in the classroom,” Castellone said.
Gov. Lincoln Chafee said in a statement he’s relieved no one was seriously injured. He said the state will review how the situation was handled. University President David Dooley said the campus, which has 13,000 undergraduates, also would review whether students took the lockdown seriously; many were walking around while the situation was going on despite being ordered to stay inside.
Law-enforcement officers and police dogs entered Chafee Hall and searched room by room. A toy Nerf gun was found inside a backpack thatbelonged to a student in the class, police said, though they said they didn’t know if it had any connection to the incident.
Police were considering a possible connection to an on-campus game run by a sanctioned student group called Humans Vs. Zombies. Its website describes it as a game of tag that involves foam dart blasters and notes that “realistic looking weaponry” is prohibited.
At least three people received minor injuries in the rush to exit the building, university Police Chief Stephen Baker said. Classes were canceled for the rest of the day Thursday. They were set to resume today.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 04/05/2013