Last week, Binnewies Hall was placed under lockdown due to a report of a man with a gun late on the evening of Thursday Sept. 19. As of now, the incident on campus is finalized and the case has been moved to the hands of the state court for possible judicial action.

The student responsible will possibly receive a charge of disorderly conduct, according to Univ. Law Enforcement Officer Cora Olson. There is a possibility of student conduct violations, as having an airsoft gun in a residence hall is in violation of the residential life policy. The final court proceedings will become public information once it gets finalized.

According to Chief of Safety and Security Tim Heaton, during the incident, it was just the university police department officers in the residence halls, the Brookings city police were watching the perimeter, incase anything were to happen outside.

The police did not know that it was not an active shooter they were going after, and had to treat it as such, according to Heaton. When they found out it was an airsoft gun, police could give the all clear.

Officer response to the incident was according to training.

“We train bi-annually to prepare for an active shooter, we didn’t know it wasn’t an active shooter or we would not have responded like this,” Heaton said. “The reporting party said they saw a kid with a gun walking down the hallway.” 

An airsoft gun looks similar to a real gun but the student who made the call couldn’t see the tip of the airsoft gun, which is usually painted orange. According to Olson there were no verbal threats made and the suspect came in voluntarily.