Photo by Ted Eytan
A former Howard University medical student may have been the cause of the shooting scare at the school on Tuesday, according to a WJLA report.
Stephen Whetstone, director of Howard’s health sciences department, told WJLA that they were aware of a medical school dropout who made threats to come back and shoot at a testing center. “I think he was pretty much targeting his former classmates,” Whetstone said. The unnamed student reportedly warned his girlfriend that her family would be targeted if she told authorities.
D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham told the news outlet that the initial report of an active shooter may have come from a concerned person who heard about the threats from a third party.
When reached by phone, Whetstone directed DCist to the university’s media department, which has not returned a request for comment.
The shooting scare took place as the historically black university celebrated its homecoming and 150th year in existence. It happened less than two weeks after police arrested a 24-year-old man who they say anonymously threatened to kill people at the historically black college nearly two years ago.
On Tuesday, a D.C. Police spokesperson said that they received a report of a shooter at the school’s administrative building, which was subsequently evacuated. Howard’s interim police chief Alonzo Joy said university officials then received a call of a shooter at the college’s School of Medicine, in addition to other buildings on campus.
Over nearly two hours, staff and students were instructed to shelter in place as D.C. and campus police searched a total of four buildings and eventually gave the all clear. They didn’t find a suspect and there were no injuries reported.
HU president Wayne A.I. Frederick announced the classes were cancelled for the day, but all of the sesquicentennial homecoming festivities were still in place.
Joy said that the investigation was not over. “There are going to be some serious repercussions if we identify who was engaged in this, but right now we really want to continue with our investigation to find out why this occurred.”
