All it took for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to be thrown into disarray on Wednesday was one tired police officer who just wanted to go to bed. This officer was reported as an armed person walking toward campus.
Police Chief David Roddy said, “What we determined at this time is that a Chattanooga police officer at the end of his shift, wearing a full police uniform, had retrieved items out of his car and was walking toward his residence to go to bed.”
Sometime before noon, the police received a report of a man with a rifle headed toward the campus on 8th Street.
It was at this time that the university sent out a text alert to students, telling them to be aware of the situation, and to report any sort of suspicious activity. A few minutes afterward, reports soon came out which said the armed man may have been in Fletcher Hall.
Police soon locked down the building, and evacuated students. Many classes were cancelled, and students were left to their own devices, as the campus was not shut down despite the threat of an armed person on campus. Some stayed in their classrooms.
“Everyone was pretty calm. We were all in our room, and we felt pretty safe there,” said student John Trahin, “They said he was in Fletcher, and we were in Grote Hall, so I felt like we should’ve been okay.”
The “rumor mill” was working at full capacity by this time, with several wild stories spreading about the “gunman” and the situation in general.
“I’ve heard he was surrounded in the basement, and everyone is saying, “Oh, we’ve seen snipers on the roof,” said student Logan Conley, “It’s just…..people completely blow this up and you can visually see what this comes to.”
Within a matter of minutes, the downtown campus was awash with dozens of police officers, and no person was allowed to go within at least 100 feet of Fletcher Hall.
“I don’t necessarily feel like the way they informed students is the best, but do know the Chattanooga police’s respond time was really great,” said student Amanda Morgan Fann.
“As a student, I wish I had known more,” said student Allissa Rae. Her statement echoed a sentiment shared by many students, who were unhappy with the infrequent updates sent out by the university. One frequently-repeated complaint was over the confusion around whether or not the university was on “lock down.” Some believed the campus was locked down, which was not the case.
A brief statement from university spokesman Shawn Ryan shed more light on the situation. He said police were unsure if the man was even on campus, much less in Fletcher Hall.
“it shows you the kind of environment that we’re working in, when a mere rumor can all but shut down the campus,” said professor Dr. Jack Zibluk, “ It just illustrates how nervous people are about shooters and about their safety.”
After the truth came out, and it was clear there was no threat, the waves of police cars filed out of campus. During the ensuing press conference, UTC police chief Robert Ratchford explained the rationale behind the “slow” news updates sent out by the university.
“As far as the text notifications, of course everything takes a certain amount of time. We want to make sure everybody stays safe, including the officers who are searching the building,” said the police chief, “As soon as the information is relayed to us, we relay it on to communications and marketing……and we get the information out as quickly as we can. But there are certain elements of an investigation we may need to keep close to our chest and may not need to or want to release at that particular time.”