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Posted by: union1

Man with gun, knife holds Tennessee college classroom hostage
By Associated Press, 9/17/2003 17:39

DYERSBURG, Tenn. (AP) A man with a gun and a knife took college students hostage Wednesday afternoon, then released three people about three hours into the standoff, authorities said.

There were 12 to 16 people in the Dyersburg State Community College classroom when the standoff began, police spokeswoman Lisa McDowell said. No injuries were immediately reported, and McDowell said she had no details on the gunman's identity or motive.

Although the hostage-taker released three people, he was refusing late in the day to negotiate with police, McDowell said. A SWAT team and about five hostage negotiators were among the officers called to the scene, she said.

School president Karen Bowyer called the state Board of Regents office in Nashville to report the standoff, regents spokeswoman Mary Morgan said. Bowyer told the Nashville officials that one faculty member was among the hostages, but McDowell said she wasn't sure a faculty member was among those still being held.

There were no reports of shots being fired, Morgan said.

Bowyer told the Nashville office that college officials thought the gunman might be a student but they didn't know what sparked the incident about 75 miles northeast of Memphis.

Athletic Director Alan Barnett said that authorities cleared the campus of other students.

''Police ordered all students to evacuate, but employees could stay,'' Barnett said in a telephone interview. ''We had students coming in since it happened, but everyone is gone now.''

Ken Teutsch, a media specialist at the campus Learning Resource Center, said from his office that he could see a couple of police cars near the building where the standoff occurred.

''It's obviously very disturbing, very shocking, but on the other hand, we're not completely unprepared. There have been training and drills and that sort of thing,'' he said

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Posted by: union1

Side note to this...... All they have is a Campus Security "Officer".. Wonder if thats only 1 person?

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Posted by: fscpd907

Another great example of why every College Police Department should be armed. I hope College Admin staffs take a hard look at this incident and give Campus Police Officers all the proper tools / training to do the job right / safe.

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Posted by: mpd61


Ya! I'm sure every College president and Board of Trustees has moved this issue to the top of their agenda's

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Posted by: fscpd907


I bet the President of Dyersburg State Community College wished the topic of campus safety had been discussed more at the monthly Board of Trustees meeting. It just seems like College Admin Staffs take the "It will never happen here" approach instead of a pro-active stance. I know an incident like this could happen at a campus that does employ an armed PD / but its just sad that fully trained sworn Police Officers are not given a chance to defend themselves against an armed individual. College Admin Staffs should look at this incident if they care about the safety of their Students, Staff, Visitors and if they don't then they should be held accountable if something like this happens on their campus.

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Posted by: PATS246

An incident like that makes you kind of say, "see I told you so", to the University Admin. But even w/ an armed dept, could it have been prevented or quicker response, maybe yes, maybe it wouldn't have made a difference. I'm still for being armed if you wear a police badge and drive a police car. The sad thing is that all these highly educated college administrators will not take a second look. They would say, well that was there and that happened in another state, or those things don't happen on this campus. The unarmed university I used to work at had a murder suicide years back with a employee of the cafeteria, and her ex husband. When the police dept approached the admin again, there response was that it was an isolated incident, and it didn't involve a member or the college community. Pretty sad mentality to have. Also they had a shooting out at a school sponsored dance years back. That was also brought up, that was also an isolated incident, citing that the people involved were not members of the university. Pretty sad state of affairs at some colleges. Not knocking where anyone works, but I know how it is, I worked at an unarmed school for 3 years. Its just amazing how uneducated these educated people can be about certain things. They just don't want to "offend" anyone by having one of thier university police officers carrying a firearm.

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Posted by: cjm74

GPD11,
If I may, those people are just f---ing idiots who know nothing about police roles and functions. They don't deal w/ shitheads and don't even realize what type of people police interact with on a daily basis. They never seen cops being shot or stabbed, while performing job functions, because their to busy hiding under the desk.They have no idea what a police officer is. The so called educated people aren't so educated on what really happens out in the real world This thread just pisses me off. Thanks alot UNION

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