Possible Person With A Gun In Lee Hall: Stay Away Or Lockdown

Thursday, January 25, 2024NYarmed personemergency notificationhigh confidence

UnfoundedNo evidence of an actual threat was found. The institutional response is documented because the alert communication is identical to what would occur during a real incident.

On the afternoon of January 25, 2024, Manhattan College's Riverdale, Bronx campus went into a campus-wide lockdown after a report of a possible person with a gun inside Lee Hall, a residence hall. The MC JASPER911 alert system pushed an emergency text to students, parents, and faculty as NYPD officers responded. The individual was taken into custody, but no firearm was recovered.

Alerts: 2
Response: —
Killed: 0
Injured: 0

Institution

Manhattan College

Private Masters · NY

~4,000 studentsMC JASPER911

Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence · 2 verified verbatim

INITIAL ALERTSMSAfternoon of January 25, 2024

Verified verbatimThe Quadrangle (Manhattan College student newspaper)61 chars

possible person with a gun in Lee Hall. stay away or lockdown

Sent on the afternoon of January 25, 2024 via the MC JASPER911 mass-notification system to students, parents, and faculty

The lowercase styling and instruction to either avoid the area OR lock down captures the constraint environment of an SMS-first alert in an active threat

Lee Hall is a residence hall on Manhattan College's Riverdale, Bronx campus and was at near full capacity at the time of the alert

ALL CLEARSMSA little over an hour after the initial alert on January 25, 2024

Verified verbatimThe Quadrangle (Manhattan College student newspaper) quoting the verbatim JASPER911 all-clear text67 chars

incident over. Lockdown is ended. No weapons observed or recovered.

Lifted via the same JASPER911 SMS channel that delivered the initial alert — preserving the lowercase styling of the original text

The Quadrangle reported the all-clear came 'a little over an hour after the incident'

The all-clear was followed later by a longer email from President Milo Riverso providing a formal narrative — the SMS-first / email-second pattern familiar in Clery emergency notifications

Context

Background

Manhattan College (now Manhattan University following its 2024 redesignation) is a private Lasallian institution in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. On the afternoon of Thursday, January 25, 2024, the campus went into immediate lockdown after a report of a possible person with a gun inside Lee Hall, one of the school's two main residence halls. NYPD officers responded within minutes, students sheltered in classrooms and rooms, and parents flooded phone lines after the MC JASPER911 alert reached families. An individual was taken into custody and no weapon was recovered. A little over an hour after the initial alert, JASPER911 sent a brief verbatim all-clear ('incident over. Lockdown is ended. No weapons observed or recovered.'); President Milo Riverso later followed with a longer narrative email — a familiar pattern in Clery emergency notifications where the SMS-first alert is followed by an email walk-through.

Outcome

An individual was taken into custody by the NYPD; no weapon was found. A JASPER911 text alert lifted the lockdown a little over an hour after the initial alert ('incident over. Lockdown is ended. No weapons observed or recovered.'); President Milo Riverso then sent a follow-up email to the campus community confirming the all-clear.

Provenance

Sources

Student Paper
Alleged Gunman in Lee Hall Prompts a Campus-Wide Lockdown (The Quadrangle)
mcquad.org
Official
Emergency Alerts (Manhattan University Public Safety)
inside.manhattan.edu
Clery ASR
Annual Security and Fire Safety Report 2024 (Manhattan College)
content.manhattan.edu

Alert Sequence

Background

Sources

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