TJC ended a shelter in place across its main and west campuses today at 11:08 a.m. following a false report of an active shooter.
Vice President of Operations and Chief Operations Officer, Kim Lessner, announced the all clear at 11:08 a.m. via email, and normal activities were able to resume.
The initial report of a potential active shooter sent TJC into a shelter in place. TJC Police Department and the Tyler Police Department evacuated both TJC west campus and the Pirtle Technology Building at TJC main campus.
The alerts came through RAVE Alerts, a free service that sends out important information to students, staff and visitors of TJC, such as weather reports, campus closures and safety measures.
This is a developing story.
Update: 2:34 p.m.
Multiple higher education campuses across Texas received similar active shooter reports within a few hours on April 13.
“It’s an odd thing to have seven or eight college campuses get this call. Within hours, probably within an hour,” Andy Erbaugh, Tyler PD Public Information Officer, said.
Other universities like Baylor, Texas Wesleyan, Texas A&M, Collin County, Del Mar College, Lamar University, University of Texas Dallas and Galen College of Nursing School, all received similar reports around the same time. In each case, the campus was shut down and cleared by campus and local PD.
TJC announced a shelter in place and evacuated TJC west campus and Pirtle Technology Building at TJC main while officials secured the campuses.
“We responded in force here to check Pirtle Technology Center, Tyler PD and TJC,” Erbaugh said.
After clearing both campuses, the all clear was announced by Vice President of Operations and Chief Operations Officer, Kim Lessner via email.
“Earlier today, TJC officials were made aware of a possible active shooter at certain facilities at TJC,” Lessner said in her email. “Upon investigation it was discovered to be a false report. There are reports of similar false incidents at other Texas higher education institutions today. At this time, normal operations have resumed at all TJC sites.”
TJC campuses and other universities who received the same reports have now given the all clear.
“Right now, everything is secure. We expect no other calls,” Erbaugh said. “But if anything else comes out, we will respond in force, just as we did before. But we have no indication. And nothing has occurred at any of these other colleges to give us any indication that anything else is going to occur. So I don’t see any reason to not go about your business today.”
This is a developing story.
