UT-Arlington is back to normal after a scare Wednesday morning put the entire campus on high alert.
At about 10:00 a.m., UTA Police received multiple reports that a man wearing army fatigues was seen carrying a gun inside the university’s Architecture building.
The west side of campus was briefly put on shelter-in-place while UTA and Arlington police officers surrounded the building. An alert was also sent to all students and faculty members.
“We were scared and also confused,” said J.C. Puebla, a UTA freshman who lives in a dorm across the street from the Architecture building. “We didn’t know why a man would have a gun or what was going on.”
If you are not in the Architecture Building, resume normal operations. Finals schedules should continue as planned.
— UT Arlington (@utarlington) December 16, 2015Officers quickly located the man and detained him. They said he had no weapons – just a camera and a tripod that he was using to film some kind of video project.
Within the hour they determined there was no threat and gave the all clear.
UTA PD reports of suspicious white male w/ a gun in fatigues seen in arch bldg. Shelter in place & stay away from bldg until further notice.
— UT Arlington (@utarlington) December 16, 2015
“Our campus community did exactly what we asked them to do,” said UTA Police Chief Kim Lemaux. “And that’s if you see something, say something. They called us. They reached out. As I said, we couldn’t be more proud.”
Students are still going to classes and carrying on just outside the architecture building.. @NBCDFW pic.twitter.com/BrWr4Qkqe2
— Jocelyn Lockwood (@JocelynNBC5) December 16, 2015
UTA police have not released the man’s name, but told NBC 5 he is not a student at the university.
UTA Police being assisted by @ArlingtonPD looking for suspicious person around architecture bldg pic.twitter.com/vFcFwnFrnm
— UTA Radio.com (@UTARadio) December 16, 2015They also said he cooperated with investigators and was released Wednesday afternoon.
Because there is no evidence that any illegal activity took place, the man likely won’t face any charges.
Tactical team at architecture building, report of a suspicious person with a gun. Staff, students sheltering pic.twitter.com/fNFbB2b6T4
— UTA Radio.com (@UTARadio) December 16, 2015NBC 5's Frank Heinz contributed to this report.
