On Feb. 5, Eugene police received a report of reckless endangering at 1214 Kincaid St., where a suspect allegedly shot “soft, colorful water beads” from a moving car at a group outside Rennie’s Landing, according to the Eugene Police Department.
“It was probably Orbeez, but there was really no way to know,” University of Oregon student Savannah Brown said. “It was just that image of the car driving away with the arm shaking the gun out.”
A campus crime alert was not sent until four days after the first incident. According to UOPD Chief Jason Wade, the department became aware of the incident outside Rennie’s Landing the following week after inquiries from The Daily Emerald.
Under the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990, known as the Clery Act, universities that participate in federal financial aid programs must disclose criminal activity within their Clery geography and provide timely warnings to students.
On Feb. 9, four days after the incident outside Rennie’s Landing, the university issued a campus-wide Clery alert.
The alert listed three additional incidents involving the shooting of water gel beads: one on Feb. 3, when one person was reportedly shot at 515 Broadway; one on Feb. 4 at West Broadway and Charnelton Street; and one on Feb. 5, when one person was shot on 11th Avenue and Alder Street near Bushnell University.
The vehicle involved in the Rennie’s Landing incident was described in the alert as a blue or black SUV, though witnesses recalled it as a dark sedan. It reportedly drove down 12th Avenue and turned left onto Kincaid Street.
Brown said she initially thought the objects were acorns or rocks until the car circled back and fired again minutes later.
“They were wanting people to be scared,” University of Oregon student Sage Hoffman Nadeau said. “And I think that the upsetting part is that threat, because of the country we do live in, it’s entirely plausible.”
Brown said the object resembled an AR-15-style rifle with a poorly painted camouflage pattern.
“There’s somebody driving around with a gun, shooting at people in a drive-by,” Brown said. “It doesn’t matter that it’s fake. It was terrifying.”
Brown said police did not ask questions when they arrived and believed there was little officers could do, even if a license plate had been obtained.
While Rennie’s Landing is not on campus, it is adjacent to university property and falls within the university’s Clery geography, which requires incidents to be logged on UOPD’s campus crime log. No entry for the incident was posted.
The Clery Act was established after the 1986 murder of Lehigh University student Jeanne Clery and is intended to ensure transparency around campus crime and safety procedures.
“We want to keep people safe,” Wade said. “But we can’t control things that we don’t know about.”
Eugene, University of Oregon and Springfield police departments share a computer-assisted dispatch system used to manage calls. Wade said Eugene police are “very open and willing” to communicate incidents but are primarily responsible for the city.
Currently, UOPD has one dispatcher monitoring the system, which Wade said contributed to the delay in identifying the incident and related reports.
“Of course, things can always improve,” Wade said. “The day we don’t look at it and think of improvements, I think that’s the day I’ll probably retire.”
University spokesperson Angela Seydel said the university determined a warning was appropriate after learning of the incidents.
“Campus safety is our primary focus,” Seydel wrote.
Brown said the delay is concerning. “At the very least, I think it’s important to know that this is happening,” Brown said, “whether it’s just dumb high schoolers who think it’s funny to shoot people with Orbeez or people who have worse intentions.”
