St. Cloud State sends out active shooter alert before quickly changing messaging
ST. CLOUD, Minn. -- It was a scary evening on Monday for St. Cloud State University students, staff and the community after the school sent out an emergency alert warning of an active shooter.
The message read, in part, "RUN. HIDE. FIGHT."
But minutes later, another message said to disregard the alert, changing the narrative to a report of a suspicious person on campus.
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St. Cloud State University Public Safety said they later took the suspect into custody, and lifted a shelter in place order.
The university released a statement Tuesday, saying the alert was a messaging error that has been corrected for the future.
Here's the full statement:
"On May 8 at approximately 10:45 p.m., a campus alert was generated and sent via email and text to registered students, faculty, and staff of the Star Alert system for emergency messaging. There was an error in the campus messages sent at 10:45 p.m., with an email alerting campus of a suspicious person, and a text of an active shooter. There was a suspicious person on campus - there was no active shooter. An updated alert with the corrected information was sent at 10:50 p.m. and an update on the resolution of the situation was sent by 11:20 p.m. Once detected, the corrected details were sent through text and email. University officials worked immediately on the message error as SCSU Public Safety and local law enforcement addressed the suspicious person. St. Cloud Police Department made contact with the individual and brought them to the hospital without incident. There was no assault or crime committed. Campus is operating as normally scheduled. SCSU Public Safety officers will continue to monitor campus safety conditions. The messaging error has been resolved for future emergency situations.
