2 Men arrested after reports of gunman on Charleston Southern campus

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By Raymond Owens

Published: October 7, 2008

Police have two men in custody after reports of a gunman on the campus of Charleston Southern University. Campus security and North Charleston police responded to the rear of the campus around 9:00PM last night to reports of a gunman on campus.

They immediately place the campus on lockdown and notified students using their emergency alert system. At least one parent contacted News 2 to tell us her child did not receive an alert. Around midnight, officers did take one man into custody and began searching for a second suspect.

That search led officers to a gas station across the street from the campus, where officers collected evidence from a blue sedan. Charleston Southern Officials tell News 2 that there are no reports of any students injured. Doug Dickerson, Director of University Relations told us,"their safety and security is the most important thing to us and we’re going to make sure we can do everything we can to keep students aware of what’s going on at all times.”

Dickerson says one of the two men in custody is the first suspect they were looking for. He is a male student at the school. At this time, the school is not releasing the names of the two men in custody. Officials do not believe this incident is connection to reports of a possible gunman on campus last month.

The campus is no longer on lockdown at this time and classes will go back to their normal schedule today.

Reader Reactions

Posted by ( Renee ) on October 07, 2008 at 2:44 pm

I am a parent of a csu student. I just recieved a call from the Iris red alert about the gunman incident last night. It scared me , and I wondered why my daughter had’nt called me to let me know she was ok. I live in Tennessee. I called her and to my surprise, she had not heard anything about it.She did not have a class today. She WAS NOT notified by her cell phone that there was a problem. I think that is pretty sorry that I, in Tennessee, am notified and my daughter who attends there is’nt. Lots of work is needed on this alert system.

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Posted by ( slolson ) on October 07, 2008 at 10:12 am

I am a student at CSU. I don’t know if CSU gave you information that the students were notified, but we were NOT. The only thing that the students were told were to get into their rooms and lock the door. No one that I know received any of the IRIS alerts. The only thing we received was a paper under the door after the lockdown was lifted, telling us a little bit about what happened.

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Posted by ( mystic ) on October 07, 2008 at 9:12 am

I am a parent of a student at CSU. Despite CSU’s assertion that emergency alert system was used. At best it is ineffective. I know of at least 6 students that were at the library that did not recieve the alert. They walked back to the dorms unescorted after 9:00 PM. We were receiving texts from my daughter at this time catching up on the day. It was not until they entered the dorm that they were informed the campus was on lock down. They then called some of their friends still at the library and informed them of the situation. CSU failed to inform student in a very dangerous situation and this needs to be addressed ASAP!!

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