Campus Alert Archive
UMD

The Tan Honda Odyssey That Wasn't: How a 1:16 AM UMD Alert Sent Suspects Hunting a Vehicle That Didn't Exist

MDshootingtimely warningmedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

Just before 1 AM EST on February 12, 2013, graduate student Dayvon Maurice Green, 23, set fires inside his off-campus house at the 8700 block of 36th Avenue near the University of Maryland, College Park to lure his housemates outside, then fatally shot one of them and wounded another before turning the gun on himself. UMD Police sent a campus-wide alert at 1:16 AM EST stating that suspects had been spotted in a tan Honda Odyssey — information the department later corrected when investigators determined no such vehicle existed and that the shooter, his victim, and the survivor were all roommates.

Alerts
3
Response
16 min
Killed
1
Injured
1
Institution
University of Maryland, College Park
Public R1 · MD
~37,000 studentsUMD Alerts
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

3 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 reconstruction133 chars
UMD ALERT: Off-campus shooting at 8700 blk 36th Ave. 1 victim deceased, 1 injured. Suspects spotted in tan Honda Odyssey. Avoid area.

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

Sent at 1:16 AM EST, approximately 16 minutes after the 1:00 AM EST shooting — well within the post-Virginia Tech expected response window
The 'tan Honda Odyssey' detail was retracted within hours; UMPD subsequently confirmed no such vehicle was involved and that the shooting was a murder-suicide between roommates
Sent in plural form ('Suspects spotted') even though investigators would later determine there was only one shooter — illustrating the cost of issuing a fast first alert based on early witness reports
The phrase 'Avoid area' rather than 'Shelter in place' reflects that the shooting was off-campus and the immediate threat assessment did not extend to dormitories
CORRECTIONEmail
Approximate reconstruction210 chars
UMD ALERT UPDATE: Earlier alert reported suspects in a tan Honda Odyssey. Police now report no such vehicle was involved. The shooting is being investigated as an isolated incident. No further threat to campus.

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

Among the earliest documented examples of a U.S. university issuing a formal correction-style alert — a category the Clery Act did not yet explicitly contemplate in 2013
The phrase 'isolated incident' became a Clery-Act-era euphemism for 'no continuing threat,' which is the legal standard for closing out a timely warning
Issued before sunrise to ensure students saw it before morning classes resumed — UMD did not cancel classes for February 12
FOLLOW-UPEmail
Approximate reconstruction310 chars
UMD COMMUNITY: Police have determined that early this morning's off-campus shooting at 8700 36th Ave was a murder-suicide. The two deceased and one injured individuals were all UMD students. Counseling services are available through the Counseling Center. There is no continuing threat to the campus community.

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

Disclosure that all three were UMD students transformed the incident from an 'off-campus shooting' into a campus-community trauma — a distinction that shaped subsequent counseling outreach
'No continuing threat' is the precise [Clery Act timely-warning](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clery_Act) closeout phrase
The Counseling Center referral became a template that UMD would use again in [later murder-suicides in College Park within three years](https://dbknews.com/0999/12/31/arc-kn6cj66yivhyhcong6xwcayafy/)
Context

Background

The February 12, 2013, murder-suicide at the 8700 block of 36th Avenue in College Park, Maryland became one of the most-studied examples of how a fast first alert can introduce its own information hazards. Just before 1 AM EST, 23-year-old graduate student Dayvon Maurice Green — an engineering student with a NASA internship history and a documented mental-illness diagnosis — set small fires inside the house he shared with three other UMD students. As his housemates fled into the cold, Green shot Stephen Alex Rane, 22, of Silver Spring (fatally) and Neal Oa, 22 (non-fatally), then shot himself. UMD police, acting on witness reports of a vehicle leaving the scene, issued a 1:16 AM EST campus alert referencing 'suspects' in a 'tan Honda Odyssey' — language that was retracted within hours when investigators determined Green had acted alone and no getaway vehicle existed. The case is instructive on multiple axes: it sat at the intersection of mental health, Clery Act timely-warning protocol, and the difficult question of how universities should categorize off-campus violence among students. Green had been prescribed psychiatric medication for at least a year but had never visited UMD's Counseling Center; his blood-alcohol concentration was 0.14 the morning of the shooting. Three years later, College Park experienced another murder-suicide involving UMD students, and reporters at The Diamondback used the 2013 case as the baseline for comparing institutional response.
Analysis

Key Findings

The 'tan Honda Odyssey' detail in the 1:16 AM EST alert was retracted within hours after UMPD determined no such vehicle existed — making this an early documented case of a Clery Act 'timely warning' that required formal correction
All three individuals (shooter, victim, survivor) were UMD students sharing the house, but this was not known when the initial alert went out — illustrating the tension between speed and accuracy in mass-notification
Shooter Dayvon Green had been under psychiatric treatment for at least a year but had never been seen at UMD's counseling services, sparking institutional debate about referral pathways for students treated by off-campus providers
The incident occurred at 8700 36th Avenue, less than one mile from campus — well within the Clery Geography 'noncampus building' and 'public property' boundaries that require timely warnings
Outcome
Stephen Alex Rane, 22, of Silver Spring, was killed. Neal Oa, 22, was shot and survived. Dayvon Green died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. All three were UMD students. An autopsy later revealed Green had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.14 and had been under treatment for mental illness for at least a year. UMD officials confirmed Green had never been treated at the university's counseling services.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    Police: U-Md. student kills housemate, shoots another, in murder-suicide (Washington Post)
    washingtonpost.com
  2. News
    Students dead in murder-suicide near University of Maryland (WTOP)
    wtop.com
  3. News
    College Park Shooter Dayvon Maurice Green: What We Know (Patch)
    patch.com
  4. News
    Report: College Park Shooter Dayvon Green Had Been Drinking (Patch)
    patch.com
  5. News
    Two UMD Students Dead, One Injured in College Park Shooting (Patch)
    patch.com
  6. Student Paper
    There were 2 murder-suicides in College Park in 3 years. Here's how responses differed (Diamondback)
    dbknews.com
  7. Official
    UMD Alerts (Official Archive)
    alert.umd.edu
Tags
shootingmurder-suicideoff-campusmental-healthtimely-warningcorrection-issuedgraduate-student2013
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion