By Julia Contarelli
Editor-in-Chief
“It was seven gunshots and then a pause and there was like six more,” said Isis Bradley, TJC sophomore.
Bradley was beating the drum in front of Rogers Student Center for the TJC homecoming tradition when the shooting happened. Her first instinct was to run inside with other students who were out decorating the campus for homecoming week.
“I saw people running inside, and I ask what was wrong? They told me people were shooting outside,” said Mackenzie King, Apache Chief and Student Senate Public Relations officer, who was inside Rogers Student Center at the time.
As of Wednesday, Sept. 14, students still haven’t been officially notified by TJC of the campus shooting on Monday, Sept 12.
According to the Clery Act, an institution is required to give timely warnings of crimes that represent a threat to the safety of students or employees.
“There are rules on alerts, we are aware of that,” said Kim Lessner, Executive Director of Marketing, Media and Communications
Campus police are the ones responsible for alerting the students in this situation, according to Lessner.
“It was just a word of mouth throughout the campus. I mean, like, everyone knew about it at the dorms. It was student to student,” said sophomore student, Anthony Green.
A TJC Press release issued at 3:47 p.m. on Wednesday, said the following:
“TJC Campus Police are conducting an investigation regarding shots fired on campus Monday evening at 11:42 p.m. The incident involved unidentified male subjects coming to campus to confront a TJC student outside of a residence hall. TJC Campus Police responded immediately to the scene, secured the scene and also called Tyler Police to respond. The unidentified subjects fled the scene and TJC Campus Police made a determination that this was an incident isolated to a dispute initially involving a few individuals, male subjects and a female subject, and that the incident did not pose an immediate threat to students throughout the campus. There were no injuries. Safety is of paramount concern to TJC and the College has zero tolerance for any behavior which violates school policies and criminal behavior. While it is still an ongoing investigation, TJC has taken immediate action to suspend students involved in the incident. Following further investigation, TJC will pursue all available actions including enforcement of any violations of school rules and policies as well as full prosecution of any criminal behavior.”
