Around 2:55 p.m., students sitting on the first floor of Shannon could see an officer with a long gun cross the foyer. Four minutes later, there were more, and students started sprinting out before the officers themselves began yelling to evacuate.
Moments later, the fire alarm began to sound, and in between the blaring buzzers, the automated voice began instructing people to leave because of a possible fire. The message was uncomfortable against the surrounding scene, and when students began tuning in to an online police scanner, they could see that the police were actually responding to reports of a much more dangerous situation: a possible active shooter.
By 3:03 p.m., officers were pushing people back toward the UVA Chapel, setting a perimeter that appeared to reach entrances by Clemons Library, Special Collections, and Peabody Hall, all while police began sweeping Shannon’s upper floors, including the fifth. The perimeter eventually extended to Monroe.
Despite chatter and rumors already circulating, the official UVA Emergency Alert didn’t go out until 3:05 p.m.: “Active Attacker with a gun reported in area of Shannon’s Library, 160 McCormick Road. RUN, HIDE, FIGHT.” Despite the delayed emergency alert, students began warning each other of the danger — you could see communications in all forms, such as an email sent in the Brown College “Chat,” a Listserv everyone in the residential college uses, warning of the situation and saying “…don’t know why no emergency alert!” GroupMe and Slack group chats for CIOs across Grounds lit up with concerned peers and safety updates.
At 3:09 p.m., word reached police that students were still inside—about ten barricaded on the right side of the third floor, adjacent to the stairwell, with others hiding in a basement bathroom. At 3:14 p.m., another UVA Emergency Alert came telling students to keep following the Run-Hide-Fight protocol and said the University Police Department (“UPD”) was on scene at Shannon and investigating. At 3:17 p.m., another update: academic buildings on Grounds moving to Access Control only — meaning regular key cards would no longer work.
At 3:32 p.m., the police scanners had moved on to other situations across the city with a general remark that there were 40 students barricaded inside the Small Special Collections Library. While we continued to get updates on the barricaded students, what we weren’t getting were updates on the actual attacker, nor a clear answer as to whether or not there had been any injuries.
At 3:34 p.m., another UVA Emergency Alert came informing us that the police were still investigating, but at this time, there is no evidence of an attacker. We received another one at 3:41 p.m., adding that students should “Continue to RUN-HIDE-FIGHT.” A police officer remarked over the police scanner at 3:42 p.m. that “no one has apparently seen an active assailant at all nor has heard of potential injuries,” and around 3:53 p.m., going from the top down, the third floor of Shannon Library had been cleared by police.
Another emergency alert came in at 3:58 p.m. declaring that there is no evidence that an attack occurred in the first place. They began sweeping and clearing Clemmons Library at 4:36 p.m., with the “All Clear” coming from the UVA Emergency Alert at 4:43 p.m. as the sweep of Clemons continued. At 4:50 p.m., it was announced that the police would no longer be needed and could release any students with them.
This lockdown follows a series of similar incidents that happened in the spring of this year; for those who were here last spring, this doesn’t feel entirely new. Two separate incidents triggered alerts that week—first, an armed person running through Grounds away from police, then a stabbing. A second-year student, from the engineering school and wishing to remain anonymous, remarked, “I think this has been the worst communication from UVA of the three instances I’ve experienced.” There was a common sentiment shared by older students when the two incidents happened in February: a promise that this wasn’t “the normal.” Yet today, many returned to the same lockdown spots they used last year, feeling just as disappointed in UVA’s handling of the situation.
Even as this becomes our “normal,” the overwhelming fear shared by students upon reading those three words — “RUN-HIDE-FIGHT” — remains the same. The police scanner drew up to 13,872 listeners, and reports came in of students so terrified they began barricading themselves off Grounds — including in the bathroom at the Afghan Kabob restaurant nearby. While there is currently no indication that there was ever an active attacker on Grounds, the original cause for the report remains unclear. The last alert received from UVA remarked that the original report had been determined “false” and that an investigation into the origins of the threat is ongoing.
This story is developing and will be updated with further information.
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