Oklahoma President Denies Reports Of Shooting On University Campus [Update]
University of Oklahoma President David Boren says there was no shooting on campus Wednesday afternoon.
Earlier reports stated that a shooting had taken place on the university campus located in Norman, Oklahoma. The university’s Web site warned of a “shooting on campus,” and advised Oklahoma students to avoid the area around the Gould Hall architecture building. The subsequent investigation revealed no evidence of a shooter.
“At this time, there is no evidence that shots were fired,” Borne said via USA Today.
Speculation as to the source of the noise led Boren to postulate that it could have been machinery backfire from construction, Oklahoma student newspaper The Oklahoma Daily reports. The campus-wide search has been lifted except for Gould Hall, where The Daily reports SWAT officers are conducting an additional search.
“Classes are going on as normal in all other buildings except Gould Hall,” Boren said. “Additional search of Gould Hall being conducted just in case. It appears to have been a false alarm.”
Several Oklahoma students were clearly upset by the event, either by the prospect of the shooting or the ensuing evacuation and sweep. Freshman Amanda Boccio was alone in a studio in Gould Hall when she heard the sirens.
“I heard like running,” she told The Daily. “I didn’t know if it was a cop or something. I just got out of there.”
The Oklahoma shooting scare comes just days after a student was shot at Widener University in Pennsylvania and the day after a deadly shooting at Purdue University in Indiana.
