“Someone has a gun around Pace”
“He’s in the bathroom”
“Someone was banging on our door…my professor is calling 911”
“We’re in class what do we do”
“Our professor left”
“We heard he has a machine gun”
“My professor said not to leave”
“They’re making us evacuate the gym”
“What? I think we’re on lockdown”
“There’s an emergency but they didn’t tell us what”
“Police are here”
“I’m outside let me know when you’re safe”
“I’m still in class my professor locked the door”
“Guys my sister is in class she hasn’t answered my text”
A handful of students were notified that there was an emergency and to keep it to themselves until they knew more information. Professors were not being told what to do and some even continued teaching. Some classes were on lockdown, others evacuated, and some were deciding on their own what they should do.
I was in the library in the computer lab hidden in the back behind the printers. There was an exit to my right that led outside. Other students were loud – laughing, making jokes, standing looking out the window. My mind raced back to elementary school when we did school-shooter drills. I couldn’t remember what to do. I thought about One Tree Hill’s school shooting and how Peyton got shot in the library. That was the closest thing to reality I could think of.
I’m relieved knowing that it was just a false alarm, but those thirty minutes of being unsure was the scariest feeling. We joked to lighten the mood after finding out everything is okay but I decided to reflect on what happened. You always hear about how desensitized we are as a society and I’ve always agreed with it to an extent. After today, I really understand how detached I am personally from tragedies that I hear about on the news. I feel as though I hear bad news on a constant loop and it doesn’t actually register in my head. After today I’m sure the Pace community will be feeling everything a bit more deeply than before. To the student that called the police – thank you. There may have not been a real need for it this time but you didn’t take any chances. You never think you’ll have to go through something like this until you’re blindsided. I’m very thankful that it was resolved quickly. I hope my fellow students have been able to move past what happened and come out a little smarter and more aware of their surroundings.
Police responding to a report of an active shooter at Pace University.