Students reacted to the false reports of a shooting on campus Sept. 11 with fear and uncertainty as information about the incident remains scarce.
The incident, which began at 3:47 p.m. with reports of a “police incident” at the Motley East Residence Hall, quickly escalated into what the university called a “public safety threat.” This led to a massive response from the UMass Boston and Boston police departments, Massachusetts State Police, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
An alert sent minutes earlier relating to the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate was unrelated, documents show, but the university provided no information to students after the emergency alert.
“Me and a handful of friends were speculating about what was happening outside at EMKI. We saw police cars and fire trucks, but no ambulance,” said sophomore Quinn Amighi, who was in a ninth floor lounge in the Residence Hall when the first calls were issued. “At 3:47 I received a text from UMass Boston saying that the police incident was near Residence Hall East.”
The lower floors of both residence halls were evacuated by police and SWAT teams around 4:10 p.m., while students in other academic buildings were told to shelter in place. Senior Jimmy Chestnut was waiting on a class to begin on the sixth floor of Wheatley-Peters Hall when his class received alerts about the incident.
“As alerts began to pile up and the incident seemed to spread, our class was interrupted by a faculty member making sure we knew of the incident and recommending we shelter in place,” Chestnut said. “We moved to Professor Fang’s office … and locked the door.”
The Boston Fire Department and EMS were positioned outside of the Residence Hall. Police told students as they exited the building that there had been a shooting.
“I also was sent a news article that reported that shots were fired on campus,” Amighi said. “This news article claimed that Boston Police Department confirmed the shots fired. Where we were, we did not hear any shots. I was not evacuated, but the room next to me was.”
Student Joseph Mancini was also in the dorms at the time. “They knocked on our door and evacuated me and my roommate,” he said. “They didn’t give us info but said we would be shot if we didn’t keep our hands up.”
Students in Campus Center were evacuated around 4:30 p.m., and classes and activities were cancelled for the remainder of the day. Authorities reported the campus all clear at 5:11 p.m. Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco wrote in a statement that evening that the reports of a shooting were false, and classes resumed as normal Friday morning.
“While this is still an ongoing investigation, we want to reassure the community that after a thorough assessment by multiple law enforcement agencies, there is no evidence that any gunfire occurred anywhere on campus or in any adjacent building or campus locations,” Suárez-Orozco wrote in a safety update Sept. 12. “We made the decision to resume normal operations today, grounded in confidence that our campus is a safe place to learn, teach, and work.”
College campuses across the country have been hit with a wave of false threats following the Sept. 10 shooting of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk in Utah. Although the events at UMass Boston were due to a false report, students reported feeling scared and unsettled by the ordeal.
“I recalled feelings I’d felt during my first rocket attack experience in Afghanistan,” Chestnut said. “I wondered if my classmates … would develop the same casualness to the imminent threat of violence that my soldiers did.”
“I felt like this could happen again easily and the exact same response would be given,” Mancini said. “Mostly not just cause of how we were left exposed in an opening at threat of a shooter, but also because it felt like one wrong move and the cops would be the ones to shoot you.”
Students also reported feeling dissatisfied with the university’s response, citing the ambiguity of the alert system and the lack of overall communication.
“No emails from the university actually clarified what happened,” Amighi said. “I’m still getting conflicting reports on what actually went down.”
“With that steady stream of admittedly vague alerts, things could have been much worse,” Chestnut said. “I hope the university captures lessons learned from this attack and tweaks their plans accordingly.”
In another community update Sept. 12, Suárez-Orozco clarified that “our first responders are following safety protocols, may only have partial details in the early moments, and are making calculated decisions not to release information that could cause confusion or endanger the community or responding officers.” He thanked the university and law enforcement for their cooperation and gave information about support resources.
“Moments like these remind us that safety is not only the work of first responders—it is a shared responsibility,” he wrote. “Yesterday, our community rose to that responsibility together.”
