Campus Alert Archive
URI

A Misheard Phrase, a Nerf Gun, and the Lockdown That Armed URI's Police

RIarmed personemergency notificationmedium 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 April 4, 2013, the University of Rhode Island's Kingston campus was locked down for roughly two and a half hours after a professor in Chafee Hall believed she heard a student say something about having a gun. State police searched the building's 300-seat auditorium and found only a toy Nerf gun in a student's backpack. Investigators concluded there was never a gun or gunman on campus. The scare led URI to arm its campus police, becoming the last public university in the nation to do so.

Alerts
2
Response
—
Killed
—
Injured
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Institution
University of Rhode Island
Public R1 · RI
~17,000 studentsURI 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 reconstruction157 chars
URI ALERT: Possible armed person reported on Kingston Campus. Lockdown in effect. Stay where you are, lock doors, stay away from windows. Await further info.

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

Reconstructed wording: the precise URI Alert text was not preserved in available archives, so isVerbatimConfirmed is false. The lockdown instruction language is paraphrased from how outlets described the alert.
State police logged the originating 911 call at 11:22 AM EDT, when a professor believed she heard a student in her lecture hall reference having a gun.
The Kingston campus is rural South Kingstown; the alert reached students by text and the URI Alert system that the university operated in 2013.
ALL CLEARSMS
Approximate reconstruction130 chars
URI ALERT: Lockdown lifted. Police found no gun and no gunman on campus. Chafee Hall has been cleared. Normal operations resuming.

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

The lockdown lasted about two and a half hours per multiple outlets, placing the all-clear in the early afternoon EDT; the exact minute was not preserved, so timestampApprox is used and no precise timestamp is asserted.
Reconstructed wording; the all-clear emphasized that no weapon was located, which became the headline finding of the entire incident.
Police clarified later that a Nerf toy gun was found in a backpack but said they could not confirm it was connected to what the professor reported.
Context

Background

The April 4, 2013 lockdown began when a professor in Chafee Hall, a high-rise classroom building on URI's Kingston campus, thought she heard someone in her lecture hall say words to the effect of 'I'm a good guy and I have a gun.' Panic spread through the room and at least three people were hurt in the rush to exit. Rhode Island State Police, who received the call at 11:22 AM EDT, swept the building's 300-seat auditorium and the rest of the campus and found no gun, no gunman, and no danger at any point. The only item recovered was a toy Nerf gun in a student's backpack, which police said they were investigating for any possible link to an on-campus 'Humans vs. Zombies' game. The episode became a turning point for campus security policy in the state: URI President David Dooley called for arming campus officers afterward, and in 2015 URI began having its police carry firearms, reportedly the final public university in the country to do so. The case is a textbook example of how an ambiguous overheard phrase can cascade into a full emergency-notification lockdown.
Analysis

Key Findings

A misheard remark in a lecture hall, not any actual weapon, triggered a roughly two-and-a-half-hour lockdown of URI's Kingston campus
State police found no gun or gunman; the only object recovered was a toy Nerf gun in a backpack with no confirmed connection to the report
At least three people were injured fleeing Chafee Hall, a reminder that evacuation panic itself is a casualty risk in active-threat scares
The false alarm directly drove URI's 2015 decision to arm its campus police, reportedly the last public university in the U.S. to do so
Outcome
No weapon and no gunman were ever found; at least three people suffered minor injuries fleeing Chafee Hall, and a single student's Nerf toy was recovered. The episode directly prompted URI to begin arming its sworn campus police officers in 2015.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    URI Ends Lockdown; No Gun Or Gunman On Campus - WBUR
    wbur.org
  2. News
    URI gunman scare was false alarm, authorities say - Boston Globe
    bostonglobe.com
  3. News
    URI gunman gone? URI ends lockdown - Christian Science Monitor
    csmonitor.com
  4. News
    Lockdown Cancelled at URI - Patch
    patch.com
  5. News
    University of Rhode Island Campus Police to Start Carrying Guns - NBC News
    nbcnews.com
Tags
active-shooter-hoaxfalse-alarmrhode-islandlockdownemergency-notificationcampus-policingUnfounded
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion