Students and families grill Monmouth U officials on armed subject, gunshot reports

WEST LONG BRANCH - The reported armed subject at Monmouth University Wednesday night was running from her dorm to her car with a curling iron, not a weapon, and widespread reports of gunshots on social media were unfounded, university officials said in a Zoom call with the community Thursday afternoon.

University President Patrick F. Leahy told more than 1,000 people tuned in on the video call that when the student reported that they'd seen a woman with a handgun on campus, police decided to implement shelter-in-place protocols. However, through interviews with students and surveillance footage, they found there was never any real threat to the campus.

A "shelter in place" order issued Wednesday around 9:15 p.m. after university police received a call reporting a person with a possible weapon in the Magill Commons area, according to an email from Leahy to the university community. It was lifted Thursday at 1:40 a.m., after police gave the "all clear."

While the shelter-in-place required everyone to stay where they were on campus, multiple police departments came to search the area, Leahy said. Simultaneously, an investigation was launched by the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office to identify and apprehend the suspect.

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Through the investigation, police were able to determine that a female student was leaving campus and forgot her curling iron, Leahy said. She went back to her dorm to retrieve it and was running back to her car with the hair tool when the reporting student saw her and thought she had a weapon.

Leahy also addressed the gunshots that were said on social media to be heard in the area.

"Nobody can confirm that there were gunshots anywhere around the campus, even around the towns in which we’re located," he said. "That was just a rumor that spread unnecessarily."

Leahy also made the decision to delay the school's opening Thursday morning "to try to recognize the traumatic experience" of the incident, he said. A message was also sent to faculty asking them to be understanding of students who were not ready to come back to the classroom yet.

The Monmouth University Chief of Police, Carlos Ortiz, addressed the Zoom attendees, stating that the university police department is a resource, and anyone who wants to talk about the incident is welcome to contact him.

Some parents and students on the call expressed their concerns with how the incident was handled. Many felt the communication to students and families was lacking. One student said that alerts weren't sent to the "students at Monmouth" chain, but only to the emergency notification system, which you're able to opt-out of.

"Fair point," Leahy responded. "We rely heavily on that emergency notification system...I think student government is going to try to help take the lead to try to make sure that our students are signed up on that. In the future, we will [use both]."

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Others questioned the clearance process and said they did not feel safe coming out of the shelter-in-place, or were not even notified that the order had ended.

But Ortiz said academic buildings were cleared once it was determined there was no threat.

"We knew we were targeting a specific area that was reported to us...so we honed in on that," said Ortiz. "We were systematic in the search once we identified the suspect and the actual threat."

One parent claimed students with their hands on their heads were taken into an open parking lot by officers with firearms, before the "all clear" was given.

Ortiz could not confirm that account, but he said an after action report would be issued on the incident.

Jenna Calderón covers breaking news and cold cases in Monmouth and Ocean counties. Before coming to the Press, she covered The Queen City for Cincinnati Magazine in Ohio. Contact her at 330-590-3903; jcalderon@gannettnj.com