I cannot begin this story pretending I was on campus the day of the fatal stabbing this past Monday May 1. I can’t paint a picture of how frightened everyone on campus was seeing a man with a bowie knife stabbing students, although I am sure we can both imagine the terror. What I can tell you is my story, the average UT student who was not present but was home and still equally as worried about what had and was about to transpire.
It was a normal Monday afternoon, sitting in my bedroom in West Campus, studying when I received a text from my friend in a group chat that read, “Hey is everyone okay?! There was a stabbing on speedway and someone has a gun!” RIght off the bat, that text message already has one untrue statement, “someone has a gun”. Granted, this was before any official message from the university or UTPD/APD was announced, but she was not there as an eyewitness to validate this claim therefore, it contributed to what became a whirlwind of rumors.
Next all my Group Me’s began to blow up.
“Four injured one may have died”
“They’re stabbing people with Greek letters”
“Stabbing on 21st and Speedway. 4 or 5 people attacked, one dead. Suspect in custody”
“GREEKS: ATXResist released a statement, saying they will attack anyone repping on sight. DO NOT wear your Greek letters. Stay safe guys, just told this by another.”
“My roommate’s friend just had a knife put to their throats and the person checked to see if she had Greek letters underneath her hoodie”
Some of these claims were true, some not so much, but both were spread throughout the entire community and even nationally. I had multiple people calling me and texting me asking if I was okay before any official statement from the University or credible news site had published anything about what had transpired. Ultimately this lead to an abundance of hearsay and further frightened the community.
As far as the targeting on Greek life claims are concerned, students began saying this after several fraternities and sororities were tagged with words ranging from “rapist” to “daddy issues” and the alleged vandals released this article about their motives and basically threatened the entire Greek community. I don’t know how the correlation between the stabbing and the vandals started but I do know the rumors ran rampant throughout the University. The correlation to the attacks and students in Greek life was put to rest in the press conference and in a statement released later to the Greek life community, but this did not stop people from spreading falsities. In addition flyers were circulating claiming “the riot is one night” allegedly insinuating that there would be some kind of attack on the Greek community that night.
After the attack, I went to pick up a friend who was in the area in class because she was scared to walk home but on our way back to our apartment I got another message stating “Anyone living in Castilian or 26 West I advise staying away from both right now. If you are already there I’d lock your doors, and stay out of the hallways, there have been threats near both.” Driving back down Guadalupe I see multiple police cars zoom out of 21st street towards Castillian on 24th, I turn my car around intending to get back to my apartment at 26 West another route but the messages from friends kept spilling in. We decided to pick up our other roommate and my dog and head to south Austin where one of our roommates is from. It took us an entire hour to get out of west campus and arrive at her house, a usual 20 minute drive due to the surplus of people trying to evacuate West Campus due to these uncorroborated claims.
Upon arrival at my roommates home, we get a message from UTPD saying that there was no altercation in West Campus and there are no continued threats. Annoyed, we drove back to west campus only to wake up the next morning and find out that there actually was a stabbing in West Campus. Granted, it later was revealed that a student fabricated that story, UTPD should have let us know to proceed with caution rather than saying there was no alleged threat when clearly no one knew what was going on.
Ultimately, the uncorroborated messages from friends and fellow students lead to a mass confusion of information that tragic Monday afternoon. From this I hope the student body can learn to not spread falsities without ensuring the claims are true. Some outlets, such as The Daily Texan, sited here multiple times did a great job of keeping students informed and continued to update stories with the most recent information. I urge my fellow peers to in the future be on the lookout for corroborated news from credible news outlets rather than whatever your friend said in the Group Me. The unverified claims just lead to more confusion and fear throughout our campus.
As for our dear fellow Longhorn who lost his life on Monday, we will miss you and never forget you, Harrison Brown, may you rest in peace.
Links Below:
https://itsgoingdown.org/university-texas-statement-from-frat-vandals/
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2017/05/03/individual-fabricated-west-ca…