Students question University of Arkansas over communication after false shooter reports
University of Arkansas students said the fast police response was overshadowed by nearly two hours without updates
By Abner Sosa
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FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas (KHBS, KHOG) — Students at the University of Arkansas are speaking out after false reports of an active shooter left the campus on edge Monday afternoon. While police responded within minutes, many say the university’s communication during the events left them in the dark.
At 12:24 p.m., police received a 911 call claiming shots had been fired inside Mullins Library. Officers from the University of Arkansas Police Department quickly arrived and were joined by federal, state and local agencies.
“The response time from the time of the call was just a little bit under two minutes,” said Matt Mills, assistant chief of UAPD.
Students who sheltered in place said the speed of the response was not their main concern. Instead, they described nearly two hours of silence after an initial campus alert.
“We tried to lock the doors, but I don’t know if the doors actually locked,” said student Mia Jordan. “We just put tables in front of it and turned the lights off.”
Others turned to social media to express frustration over the lack of updates.
“For two hours, we went through the immense trauma of not knowing what was happening and assuming many of our friends were dead,” said student Genna Crafton. “If we’d heard from some, we were scared we couldn’t reach others.”
Students said rumors spread online while they waited for official information.
“I was just praying it was nothing,” Jordan said. “On social media everyone was saying people were hurt or injured.”
Chancellor Charles Robinson issued a statement Tuesday thanking the campus community for its response.
“Thankfully, there were no physical injuries,” Robinson wrote. “We will use these events to learn how to make our campus safer in the future.”
UAPD officials said the department is reviewing every aspect of its handling of the hoax, including communication.
“There’s always room for improvement,” Mills said. “We’ll look at the things we can do better as a department and also regionally as we respond with multiple agencies.”
Some students, however, said they want more than reassurances.
“What I think we deserve is a public apology for what went wrong,” Crafton said. “They just thanked UAPD and mentioned they sent out some alerts. What we need is an admission that things went poorly and a commitment to do better.”
UAPD said it is coordinating with the FBI and other agencies to determine who was behind the false report.
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