UPDATE: Virginia Tech Lifts Alert After Reports of Possible Gunman

By WYDaily Staff Thursday, August 04, 2011

Virginia Tech Police sketch of the subject.

Virginia Tech lifted a campus alert Thursday afternoon after a search for a man carrying a handgun there produced no further sightings or tips. The campus was on lockdown from about 9:30 a.m. until 2:45 p.m. that has been in place since campers reported seeing a man carrying a handgun at 9 a.m.

The search began after 9 a.m. when, according to The Collegiate Times, three 14-year-old girls attending a Washington, D.C.-based "Higher Achievement" camp reported seeing a white male, 6 feet tall, with brown hair outside of New Residence Hall East holding what may have been a handgun. They said the weapon was covered by a cloth or some sort, and the man was walking fast in the direction of the volleyball courts. The Collegiate Times is an independent student publication on the Blacksburg campus. The Virginia Tech website said the man was wearing a blue and white striped shirt (the stripes were vertical), grey shorts and brown sandals. He had no facial hair or glasses.

Officers responded immediately to the area but found no one matching the description. A subsequent search involving four other police departments, including the Virginia State Police, found neither witnesses nor anything suspicious.

The university kept students and those on campus informed through VT Alerts, its emergency notification system that uses several methods, including text messaging to phones, electronic message boards in classrooms and campus sirens, to communicate in an emergency.

On its website around 2:45 p.m. Thursday, the university reported the large police presence would continue throughout the day, but the university community would resume normal activity.

Updates were posted on the Virginia Tech homepage. The Collegiate Times also published regular updates, including video links to the campus police press conference. Click here for The College Times website.

The Blacksburg campus was the site of the worst school shooting in history on April 16, 2007, when a student killed 32 people and wounded 25 others before committing suicide.