The gun-wielding determine captured stalking across the College of Massachusetts Lowell campus — prompting a lockdown on the primary day of sophistication — has been recognized as a juvenile who was carrying an airsoft reproduction firearm, police introduced on Thursday.
The minor, whose title was withheld attributable to his age, was seen creeping across the faculty campus brandishing a mock firearm held as if he had been getting ready to begin a faculty taking pictures, in accordance with video footage taken by college students sheltering in place.
The Lowell Police Division obtained reviews of an individual presumably armed with a gun simply earlier than 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, the primary day of lessons for undergraduate college students.
All lessons and occasions had been cancelled for the remainder of the day as swaths of regulation enforcement officers, together with FBI brokers, scoured the campus for the reported risk. No expense was spared as authorities additionally dispatched a drone, K9s, and a police air unit.
The lockdown order was lifted simply over two hours after the risk was reported as authorities “decided the suspect was not within the neighborhood,” UMass Lowell wrote in an announcement.
All the time, not one shot was fired, Lowell police added.
The investigation continued into Thursday when Lowell police recovered the reproduction weapon from a juvenile male.
“Whereas the reported firearm on this case was in the end decided to be an airsoft gun, our group could be sure that, as on this case, the Lowell Police Division will all the time make the most of all accessible sources till the security of all concerned is assured,” Lowell Police Superintendent Greg Hudon mentioned in a statement.
It's unclear how authorities tracked down the baby-faced fake gunman or what he was doing on the campus within the first place.
Preliminary reviews described the suspect as a “5'5 Asian male sporting a grey or white sweatshirt and black shorts carrying an extended weapon” that many initially suspected was an AR-15.
Lowell Police assured that, as a result of there have been no photographs fired, the ordeal was not “an energetic shooter state of affairs.”
The general public analysis college is situated roughly 45 minutes north of Boston with a pupil inhabitants of round 12,000.
The lockdown got here simply two weeks after false shooter reviews brought on chaos at a number of faculties throughout move-in weekend, together with two at Villanova College.
It's unclear if the minor is dealing with any felony expenses for the false alarm.
