Police: Reports Of Gunshots On Princeton Campus Are Unfounded
PRINCETON, N.J. (CBSNewYork) -- Princeton University officials gave the all clear late Tuesday, deeming that reports of gunshots at a campus building were unfounded.
The university Public Safety department said there were reports of shots fired at Nassau Hall, the oldest building on campus, according to KYW-TV, CBS 3 Phiadelphia.
As CBS 2's Lou Young reported, the report of shots fired came in around 8:30 p.m., and a reverse 911 call was issued to all of the 7,600 students at Princeton – most of whom live on campus – about 20 minutes later.
Armed police officers went on to search the building for two hours.
The alerts forced the evacuation Nassau Hall itself and a nearby lecture hall, and students were told to stay where they were or avoid Nassau Hall if they had to move about.
The all-clear was issued around 10:30 p.m. In a tweet, the university said police searched the building and found nothing.
Students returned to their dormitories, and they seemed very relieved.
"Definitely, it's good that we can get back to our dorms," one woman said, adding that she was holed up for "about a couple hours, but we were working on math anyway, so it's just what we would have been doing."
"I just got the call and everyone started going crazy down there," another woman said. "I mean, it's scary to just not know, because you only get the one alert, and then you're sitting there for, like, two hours, waiting to know what's happening."
Nassau Hall was constructed in 1756, and was the site of the first meeting of the New Jersey Legislature in 1776.
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