An unfounded shooting scare that left USC students and staff shaken Monday was triggered by a faculty member, who’s accused of falsely telling her students that there was an “active shooter” in one of the buildings on campus, the university reported Monday afternoon.
Officers began evacuating Fertitta Hall on the northwest corner of Exposition Boulevard and Figueroa Street around 12:15 p.m., and at 12:23 p.m., the university issued a “police activity/shelter in place” alert on its emergency notification system. About 1 p.m., the Los Angeles Police Department reported that there had been no shooting and there was “no danger to the community,” and the university circulated a similar update.
According to USC Department of Public Safety Chief John Thomas, the school took the action after receiving reports that “a faculty member during class falsely told her students there was an active shooter in the building. The faculty member has been detained by the LAPD.”
He said school police, working with the Los Angeles Police Department, “were able to quickly verify that were was no active shooter.”
Students were instructed to remain in place until receiving the all-clear.
A USC senior, who asked that her name not be used, said she and several friends were studying at Doheny Library in the center of campus when they received text messages from the university’s emergency notification system. They hunkered behind locked doors until being told that there was no danger.
“We’re all hiding and scared in Doheny,” she said while the lockdown was in effect, calling it “really scary.”
After the emergency was over, she said she was “still shaking a little.”
The university withheld the name of the faculty member who was detained.
Fertitta Hall is a multi-story building where the Marshall School of Business holds classes.
–City News Service