At 11:39 a.m. this morning, a call came to the University of Massachusetts Boston Campus Safety about a report of a person with a firearm in McCormack Hall.
The building was evacuated and students watched as campus police,the Boston Police, and the Massachusetts State Police searched the building.
After a search of the building, police did not find a person with a gun as described to police. Currently, fingerprints are being checked on the phone that the caller used. Police, however may not have an easy time identifying the caller as the phone has been used by many people.
UMass Boston spokesman DeWayne Lehman commented, “We take issues of safety and campus security very seriously. Although this report, fortunately, turned out to be unfounded, we quickly took steps to ensure the safety of everyone on campus, and to return the campus back to business as usual during this important exam week. Campus Police will continue to investigate the incident and welcome any information about who placed the call.”
Lehman also said that the police did not believe that the report had any connection to the threats that were made to other schools, Harvard University being one of them. In the case of the Harvard bomb scare, a suspect has been arrested.
Lehman commented, “We have no reason to believe that this incident was in any way connected with incidents on other campuses. The only seeming similarity appears to be that they occurred during finals week.”
After the search was complete, students were allowed back into the building.