Students remain on edge after 3 local shootings in recent weeks along with the VA tech shooting, and an unspecified threat to a Worcester/Providence area college community. On Wednesday morning, Dean of Student Affairs Jacqueline Peterson sent out a campus-wide email describing a general FBI alert issued to Worcester and Providence area colleges. The initial email was very vague and caused alarm amongst the student body and parents, prompting many anxious phone calls to the College in regard to the situation. Captain Hart of Public Safety soon followed up the Dean's email with a second email advising students to go about their normal daily activities and to be aware of their surroundings.
Dean Peterson informed the Crusader that a possible gang-member arrested in Seekonk was brought to court recently. During his time in court the man began screaming, shouting obscenities and mentioned some sort of threat of a shooting to one or more college campuses in the Worcester/Providence areas.
In an interview with Captain Hart at Public Safety, the Captain explained, "An unstable individual made certain allegations in a public forum that he had information from another unconfirmed source that there would be a shooting at Worcester/Providence colleges." The Captain described this information as "third-hand at best; however with current events anyone in law enforcement would be doing a disservice to the public by not informing them of the threat."
Captain Hart emphasized that college community needs to be aware that "when any type of threat is made, federal, state, and local authorities have a duty to advise the students" and "the FBI did not call and say a shooting is going to happen, they called and said that this individual made utterances in court."
According to Captain Hart and the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, Worcester State College notified its students of the threat last night through an email. When asked why Holy Cross Public Safety did not inform the Holy Cross community last night, the Captain responded: "I was waiting to confirm the threat further and hear back from the FBI with any further developments," and also stated that "I wanted to send out a concise, fact-based email to the community." The Captain has personally spoken with the FBI and the local news media about the threat. He stressed that "it is important to maintain our daily lives without letting panic overtake us."
The issue of armed college police forces has been spoken of in recent weeks in light of the Virginia Tech tragedy. At Virginia Tech, the officers were armed however this did nothing to prevent the horrible events that occurred. The Captain pointed this out when saying "we are always constantly re-evaluating if we need to arm our officers." He explained that "our officers are more well-rounded at dealing with volatile incidents because they are unarmed and must used their heads to evaluate and handle a situation." Additionally, the Captain said "I'm comfortable saying that this is one of the safest college campuses around," and "there have been no incidents at Holy Cross in recent years where there was the need to use deadly force (guns)."
After the initial alarm on campus Wednesday, the college sent out another email in the evening stating that "the FBI field office in Providence, R.I. told the Providence Journal newspaper and other media outlets that the FBI has determined that possible threats of violence against Worcester and/or Providence area colleges are 'not credible' and came from a person arrested in Seekonk, Mass., who claimed to police to have the information."
Despite the apparent lack of credibility of the threats, Holy Cross students remain alert and cautious after two more shootings occurred this past weekend close to campus. The Worcester Telegram and Gazette reported that Shawn F. Sims pulled out a gun during a discussion with 2 men on Saturday night and shot the gun, which injured a 13-year boy in the house at 5 Douglas St. Sims pled guilty to manslaughter in 1994 and was also convicted for his involvement in a 1993 shooting in Worcester. Despite his two sentences of 9-12 and 18-20 years, Sims served only 13 years and was paroled in March 2006.
Holy Cross student Brian Granger '08 witnessed another shooting over the weekend from his residence on Crompton Street. Granger's description of what he saw:
"We (Granger and his housemates) were in our living room at around 2:30 in the morning just doing the average college night thing when I saw lots of cars gathering at the end of the street. We looked out the window and saw 6 or 7 kids beating up one kid on the ground. Then the crowd dispersed and a couple more cars showed up. More kids got out of the car and then started frantically running down the street away from the gunfire that was coming from one of the kids.
When asked what his initial reaction to the gunfire was, Brian responded: "I initially didn't hear the gunfire so I was not too concerned about some stupid street fight. But when everyone else spoke of the gun shots they heard I became a little more concerned mainly because it is the second shooting in the past two weeks that has occurred there."
All of these events have heightened Holy Cross students' awareness of their surrounding community. We live on a campus in a city that has its share of urban problems, including crime and gang-related violence. Keeping our community safe demands our continued vigilance and awareness and the assistance of Public Safety and the local police.
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