Emergency situation at OSU contained, one suspect shot dead by police

OSU Campus. Watts Hall the targeted area of attack.

Kat Manouchehri
November 28, 2016

The reported active shooter situation on Ohio State University’s campus has been contained, according to campus law enforcement officials. At least 10 people were taken to hospitals Monday morning. One is in critical condition and one of the suspects in the shooting is dead.

The shooting was centered around Watts Hall on North campus, a building on OSU’s Columbus campus.

Students at OSU said the emergency condition started just before 10 a.m. when a suspect drove a car onto the curb outside of Watts Hall into a crowd of people.

One of the suspects got out of the car armed with a knife and started chasing people before being shot by a police officer, according to University Police Chief Craig Stone.

Students and professors were first alerted to the situation through Buckeye Alerts, OSU’s alert system.

“We didn’t take the first initial buckeye alert seriously because it didn’t have any specifics,” OSU senior Bailey Gilmore said. “(The alert) came across the computer screens and just said there is an emergency on campus and more information will follow. Then, students got a text alert saying there was an active shooter,” Gilmore said.

The Buckeye Alert System is one of the many ways Ohio State’s Department of Public Safety communicated with the campus community. Students and faculty are automatically registered for the alerts if their cell phone numbers are in the system.

“The response was incredible. The amount of police cars and swat team cars that showed up was remarkable. The response was encouraging that we can control this situation in some aspect,” OSU sophomore Annelise Peters said.

Several students said that although they still feel safe on campus, they don’t feel as if they were prepared for a situation like this.

“In one of my classes last week, we went over school shootings, and wrote a paper about if Ohio State University would be prepared for something like this. I said no, because we haven’t practiced or have been required to watch anything about it,” Gilmore said. “I know the information is accessible but we are college kids, we aren’t just going to look for active shooter protocol. I didn’t think we were prepared, and my professor was freaking out, she didn’t know what do do. 

OSU sophomore Maggie Jones was about 20 minutes away from campus when she got the alert. She said school officials did not give students useful training to prepare for something like this.

“There are still mixed reports. Some are saying it is safe, some are saying it’s not safe. It’s just an odd feeling,” Jones said. “I’m just going to stay where I am for the next few hours.”

Ohio State’s Columbus campus has about 60,000 students.

Details are expected to come in as officials control the situation. Read more from USA Today here.

“The reaction was quick and I loved the way the really did keep us updated the entire time,” Gilmore said. “Personally, I will be more nervous walking around campus because today was just a normal day. I now feel like I have to keep my head on a swivel.”