“No shots were fired & he did not have a gun when arrested.”
Sounds suspiciously like a swatting.
(CNN) — There was no active shooter at the Mississippi State campus and reports of shots being heard are the result of “panic and clutter,” Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Chris Turnipseed told CNN on Thursday. A person of interest related to the initial emergency call was taken into custody, he said.
Warren Strain, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, said Nguyen was on the phone with an Army recruiter in the Jackson area when the recruiter became concerned that Nguyen was considering suicide and directed a co-worker to call MSU. The Mississippi Highway Patrol was also called and told the university that Nguyen was threatening to shoot others, according to a transcript of the call released by MSU.
“MSU to all units, we have a possible active shooter in Carpenter Hall,” the university police dispatcher then broadcast, according to the transcript. “This is not a test.”
The university sent text and Internet alerts to students, faculty and staff, sending them scrambling to lock themselves into offices and classrooms. Nguyen was arrested a short time later in front of McCool Hall on the Drill Field, the quadrangle at the heart of campus.