Suspicious person reported on campus
Recent reports of an unknown person with a rifle on campus raised concerns among students about Texas A&M University Kingsville’s emergency alert notification system.
On the evening of Feb. 7, rumors of a suspected active shooter spread among students, with no immediate notification from the university. Students were sheltering in place in different locations on campus while some buildings went on lockdown. Had an immediate response taken place, fear and panic among students would have subsided quicker, students said.
An email regarding the possible sighting of a man outside or near the Rec center holding what appeared to be a rifle was sent over an hour after the initial report was made.
On the night of the reported sighting, Director of Public Safety and Chief of Police Felipe Garza chose not to send a notification.
“Because we have ROTC on campus and a lot of other activities – we have a lot of students, it’s a hunting area – so you’ll see students walking around campus or around their vehicles with real weapons. It was my decision to not send out one of those messages to people’s phones using the Rave system,” Garza said.
Rave Guardian is a campus safety app which students can download. Had Garza sent out a notification, only students with this app would have received it. All students and employees are automatically enrolled in TAMUK’s emergency notification system with their university email. These two notification systems are two separate systems – one used strictly by the university and one, Rave Guardian, by UPD. However, if you wish to get text message notifications from the university’s emergency notification system, students and employees must manually input their phone number and can do so by visiting https://bbctamuk.bbcportal.com/Entry.
According to the university’s website, emergency and dangerous situations are to be handled in a specific manner. The website reads: “In the event of a significant emergency or dangerous situations involving the immediate threat to the health or safety of persons on the campus, the university will, without delay, and taking into account the safety of the community, send mass emergency notification messages to provide information which will give specific directions to the community to help to ensure a safe campus environment.”
Garza said he did not feel the report of a possible man with a gun on campus warranted the use of the alert system.
“If we had found that there was a guy, that had a real weapon that would have shot somebody, that would be time to do that [send and alert]. Unless it’s a situation where somebody’s life could possibly be in danger. Based on information that we had at that time on Monday, we didn’t have any of that information we just had a call of a suspicious person, that appeared to have what might have been a rifle or a weapon and if we were to send those out every time it happened, we would be sending them out fairly regularly,” Garza said.
While rumors were spreading some students were rehearsing for a children’s show in Jones Auditorium, and reacted to information about a possible shooter. With no official notification, these students chose to shelter in place.
“We just got done with practice and just before everyone was about to leave, one of my actors got a call from their parents to be careful because they heard of someone walking around the rec with a rifle,” Student Director of Witch of the Enchanted Woods Edgar Vazquez said.
Vazquez had his stage manager call UPD in hopes of getting an answer before letting students leave the building.
“Our immediate action was to hide in the restroom located on the backstage wing of Jones,” he said.
Students hid in this location for over half an hour before UPD officers could escort students safely from the auditorium.
“I felt scared but also angry, because all of us hiding and in fear not knowing what it can be and UPD really taking their time to give us a clear answer,” he said.
Vazquez said he and the students he was with made multiple calls to UPD before an update was given.
“We heard that it was a false alarm, but this came from friends and people we know first. It took almost an hour if not more for them to send an email about the situation, but even in the email, some details didn’t match up with what others were saying,” Vazquez said. “It’s honestly ridiculous for the university to be behind on information the students/staff need to hear. I shouldn’t be getting my information about this from other students before the university sending an email with loose details.”
Garza could not comment on the investigation of who might have been wielding the suspected weapon, as the investigation was still ongoing. However, UPD has viewed security footage from the night of the event, but evidence did not supply any identifying information for the case. Garza did offer some further details.
“The person that reported it, he didn’t report it straight to us he reported it to staff at Rec Sports,” Garza said. “He said he thought it might be a real rifle because he didn’t see an orange tip on it that would indicate that it would have been a plastic or toy gun.”
According to Texas A&M University Kingsville’s (TAMUK) Student Handbook, the university “prohibits the possession or storage of any weapons…on university premises or at any university-sponsored activity, except in the following cases: law enforcement personnel engaged in the official performance of their assigned duties; approved university experiments and/or projects; transporting of firearms to and from a place of storage on campus; TAMUK ROTC; and other approved academic use.”
Director of Recreational Sports Ian Brown explained what occurred the evening of Feb. 7.
“We received a report of a potential suspect outside of the Student Rec Center wearing a ski mask and carrying what appeared to be a weapon. The building went into lockdown, UPD was contacted, they cleared the area and evacuated the building. As we know now, it turned out to be a false alarm,” Brown said.
With the information given to Rec staff, students in the center were instructed to hide in undisclosed locations around the building.
“The unfortunate reality is that we must prepare our team to handle the potential for something like an active shooter scenario. However, our staff is well-trained on our Emergency Action Plan (EAP). Our EAP has different protocols based on the threat presented, i.e., fire, medical, inclement weather, active shooter, etc. They were just re-trained on the topic at our recent department-wide retreat at the beginning of the semester,” Brown said.
At the time of the interview Chief Garza had not run a time test on the patrol’s route to the scene but says two officers arrived within a minute after the initial call was made.
Student Director of Facilities and Fitness Ernesto Gamez was working the night of the incident and said he found out about the situation when the lights went out and he suspected a breaker issue. On his way to check the breakers he was informed of the suspicious person report.
“Once I found out about the situation, I immediately began going through the lockdown protocols with the staff that were present,” he said. “I helped them find better and more secure positions to wait, and helped the director manage the student workers while he handled the patrons who were working out. As the highest-ranking student staff on shift, I felt the need to take the responsibility to keep the other student staff calm and assured,” he said. “I personally felt safe. While the location is not extremely secure, I did a lot of quick thinking and planned several exit routes in the quiet with the staff while in confinement.”
For information on what to do in an emergency situation, including active shooter protocol, students should visit https://www.tamuk.edu/housing/manuals/section4.html.
Campus Editor Sarah Reyna contributed to this report.
