Campus Alert Archive
KSU

A Cell Phone in a Pocket Puts 34,000 KSU Students Under Lockdown for 90 Minutes

GAlockdownemergency notificationmedium confidence

On April 25, 2014, a caller reported a suspicious man with a possible weapon in his pocket on Kennesaw State University's Campus Green, triggering a campus-wide lockdown just after 2 p.m. EDT. Students and faculty barricaded classroom doors with desks and tables while police searched the 384-acre campus. When officers located the individual approximately 90 minutes later, the 'weapon' turned out to be his cell phone; he was cleared without any charges.

Alerts
2
Response
—
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
Kennesaw State University
Public R2 · GA
KSU Emergency Alert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Approximate reconstruction176 chars
KSU ALERT: Suspicious man with possible weapon on Campus Green. Campus is on lockdown. Seek shelter immediately. Lock doors. Stay away from windows. Do not leave your location.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Campus dispatch received the initial call about a suspicious man at approximately 2 p.m. EDT on April 25, 2014; the alert went out shortly after
The Campus Green is a central outdoor plaza at KSU's main Kennesaw campus; students were present in large numbers for an afternoon class day
KSU had approximately 34,000 students enrolled at the time, making this one of the larger campus lockdowns in Georgia history by enrollment
ALL CLEARSMS+1h 25m
Approximate reconstruction164 chars
KSU ALERT: All clear. The suspicious individual has been located and was found to have no weapon. He was not a threat. The lockdown has been lifted. Campus is open.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Police confirmed the item in the individual's pocket was a cell phone, not a weapon; no charges were filed against the man
The approximately 90-minute lockdown disrupted afternoon classes campus-wide; students were photographed barricading classroom doors throughout the incident
The false alarm highlighted the difficulty of on-campus threat assessment where civilian 911 callers interpret ambiguous pocket bulges as weapons
Context

Background

Kennesaw State University is a large public research university in Kennesaw, Georgia, northwest of Atlanta in Cobb County. In April 2014 it had approximately 34,000 students across its 384-acre main campus. On April 25, 2014, a report of a suspicious individual with what appeared to be a weapon on the Campus Green prompted a full lockdown just after 2 p.m. EDT. Students across campus barricaded classroom doors with tables, desks, and chairs. Officers from Kennesaw State police and Cobb County police searched the campus for roughly 90 minutes before locating the individual, who was found to have a cell phone in his pocket rather than a weapon. He was cleared without charges. The incident, widely reported because of photographs of students crouched behind barricaded doors, illustrated the behavioral-threat challenge of distinguishing between concealed weapons and ordinary objects in high-traffic open-campus environments. KSU is notable as an institution that had explicitly engaged with active-shooter preparedness in the post-Sandy Hook period, and the April 2014 false alarm became a reference point in subsequent discussions about proportional lockdown responses.
Outcome
False alarm. Individual with cell phone in pocket was located and cleared. No charges filed. Lockdown lifted approximately 3:30 p.m.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    Cell phone mistaken for gun prompts KSU lockdown (13WMAZ)
    13wmaz.com
  2. News
    Photos: Lockdown at Kennesaw State University (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
    ajc.com
  3. News
    Kennesaw State lockdown lifted after 'possible armed intruder' reported on campus (11Alive)
    11alive.com
Tags
lockdownfalse-alarmcell-phone-mistakenpublic-r2georgialarge-campus2014
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion