The University of Oregon Police Department and the Eugene/Springfield Fire Department responded to a fire alarm set off in the Oregon William Knight Law Center at 3 a.m. today, which led to an incident with two students held hostage.

UO sent multiple alerts to the campus community through both email and text advising that individuals avoid the law school, and later describing the incident. UOPD Chief Matthew Carmichael gave a rundown of the incident at a 2:30 p.m. press conference in front of the Law Center.

UOPD and Eugene/Springfield Fire Department checked the law center and found no evidence of a fire, despite the fire alarm, according to an email sent to the campus community this afternoon.

“About that time our security operation center staff started looking at the video surveillance that’s inside this facility to try to determine who did the alarm pull,” Carmichael said. “Shockingly, they found video footage of an individual who not only pulled the alarm, but was armed with a handgun and inside the building acting erratically.” 

Springfield Police Department, Lane County Sheriff’s Office and Junction City Police Department assisted in diverting street traffic while the Lane County Sheriff’s drone team and a Springfield Police canine unit conducted a tactical search of the Law building, according to the email.

“At about the same time or a little bit after the first initial fire alarm we received some odd 911 calls reporting something happening on campus,” Carmichael said. The email stated the 911 calls were reporting incidents from other areas on campus.

“Our Crisis Negotiations Communicator Captain Don Morris actually started a text messaging string with that cell phone number that was used earlier in these 911 calls,” Carmichael said. 

Carmichael said that the phone used belonged to one of the students and was taken by the suspect. “The suspect had taken it early in the morning and that’s where he made the calls from,” he said. By the time the text string happened, the phone was back with the student, he said. 

Carmichael said the text string led UOPD over to Hamilton residence hall on campus. “Two Lane County Deputies along with our Officer Carol Lawton quickly located the individual that matched the description here that was in our Knight Law School,” he said. “They were able to take him into custody without incident.” 

Carmichael said the suspect was armed with a fully loaded 9mm handgun with an extra magazine when taken into custody. 

The suspect held two students in one of their rooms, the email stated. “We quickly determined that this individual had left Knight Law School and had gone to Hamilton dorm where he detained a student and a guest in their dorm room for a couple of hours,” Carmichael said. 

“At that time the suspect had left the room and that’s when we were able to put the pieces together with the texting and it led us to the suspect.” Carmichael said no one was harmed during the incident.

Carmichael said it was a “prime example of collaboration and cooperation” with multiple law enforcement agencies, and that it was a “very isolated incident.”

“The take home is: our students are safe, the threat is now averted, but it is very serious when you have an armed individual on a college campus in the United States especially with the behaviors that this individual showed,” Carmichael said. 

Carmichael said police booked the suspect into the Lane County Jail.