Campus Alert Archive
WSU

A Pen Becomes an 'Active Shooter': How Winona State's Mass Alert Got the Weapon, the Threat, and the Campus Wrong

MNthreat of violenceemergency 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 the evening of July 8, 2024, Winona State University Security in Winona, Minnesota issued the first of several 'active shooter' alerts after receiving word from law enforcement of an armed suspect 'near campus.' The actual incident, a 5:20 PM assault complaint at a business on Junction Street, involved a man who hit a female employee with what turned out to be a pen — not a gun. The 'campus' referenced was WSU's West Campus, a location WSU no longer occupies. The suspect, Stig Ure, 25, was arrested without incident. WSU Director of Security Chris Cichosz publicly apologized and the agencies launched a joint review of the emergency-alert system.

Alerts
4
Response
—
Killed
0
Injured
1
Institution
Winona State University
Public Masters · MN
~7,100 studentsWSU Alert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

4 messages in sequence · 1 verified verbatim

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 reconstructionReconstructed from KARE 11, Winona Post, and KTTC reporting describing the first of 'several active shooter messages' issued by WSU Security on the evening of July 8, 2024122 chars
WSU Alert: Active shooter reported near campus. Shelter in place. Lock doors. Stay away from windows. More info to follow.

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

Reconstructed text reflecting standard WSU Alert format and the multiple news reports describing 'active shooter' phrasing in the messages
The message was based on a single piece of information from law enforcement that an 'armed suspect' was 'near campus' — but law enforcement never actually believed the suspect had a gun
WSU operates on a summer schedule with reduced occupancy in July, but the 'shelter in place' instruction still reached thousands of registered alert recipients
'Campus' referred to WSU's West Campus — a location WSU had vacated, but the alert text did not specify that
UPDATESMS
Verified verbatimKTTC reproduced the verbatim text of WSU Alert 'Update #2' issued the evening of July 8, 202497 chars
WSU ALERT: Update #2: Active shooter is reported to be in WEST WINONA. Not on or near WSU campus.
Verbatim WSU Alert 'Update #2' as quoted by KTTC; it still carried the 'active shooter' framing while attempting to relocate the threat to 'WEST WINONA' away from the WSU campus
The repeated 'active shooter' framing across the message series amplified community fear and contributed to confusion documented by Winona Post, KARE 11, and KTTC
CORRECTIONSMS
Approximate reconstructionReconstructed from KTTC reporting quoting WSU Director of Security Chris Cichosz that 'the armed suspect was not an active shooter' and that 'campus' referred to a location formerly occupied by WSU183 chars
WSU Alert: Earlier active shooter alert was incorrect. Winona Police are responding to an assault with an unknown weapon. Suspect at large but is not believed to be on a WSU property.

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

Reconstructed correction text. WSU Security has not published the exact verbatim correction publicly, but Cichosz's quoted explanation matches this content
The correction is unusual in campus-alert practice — most alerts shift terminology rather than explicitly retracting the prior 'active shooter' framing
Stig Ure was later found in possession of a 'black and silver pen' — the 'weapon' that triggered the initial law-enforcement report
ALL CLEARSMS
Approximate reconstructionReconstructed from Winona Daily News reporting on Ure's arrest and $500K bond, and WSU Security's subsequent apology135 chars
WSU Alert: Suspect is in custody. All clear. Normal activities may resume. WSU apologizes for the confusion caused by earlier messages.

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

Reconstructed all-clear; WSU did not publish the exact text, but Director of Security Chris Cichosz publicly apologized for the alert confusion in the next day's news coverage
Ure was charged with assault and a $500,000 bond was set
The full sequence — initial active shooter → continued active shooter → correction → all-clear — is unusually clean as an illustration of how a single wrong word can cascade through a campus alert system
Context

Background

Winona State University is a public master's institution in Winona, Minnesota, with about 7,100 students. On the evening of Monday, July 8, 2024, WSU Security received a report from law enforcement of an 'armed suspect' 'near campus' and issued the first of several active-shooter alerts via the WSU Alert system. What had actually happened: at 5:20 p.m., Winona Police responded to an assault complaint at a business on Junction Street, where Stig Ure, 25, had repeatedly hit a female employee on the back of the neck. The 'weapon' was a black and silver pen. The 'campus' was WSU's West Campus, a location WSU had vacated. To compound the confusion, Winona County Emergency Management's Facebook page — set up to automatically rebroadcast emergency alerts — mislabeled the WSU shelter-in-place as a weather alert. Ure was arrested without incident and a $500,000 bond was set. WSU Director of Security Chris Cichosz publicly apologized and the agencies launched a joint review. The incident has become a small but instructive case study in how a single inaccurate descriptor — 'armed' — can cascade into a city-wide false 'active shooter' alert.
Analysis

Key Findings

A single inaccurate descriptor — 'armed' — from a third-party law-enforcement report cascaded into multiple active-shooter alerts in a city where the actual weapon was a pen
The 'campus' referenced in the alerts was WSU's West Campus, a property the university no longer occupied — an indication of stale geographic data in the alert template
Winona County Emergency Management's automated Facebook rebroadcaster mislabeled the WSU alert as a weather alert, an automation failure layered on top of the human-language failure
WSU Director of Security Chris Cichosz issued a rare public apology, and a joint agency review of alert protocols was launched — an unusual after-action step for a non-fatal incident
This is one of the few documented cases where a US university issued a formal 'correction' alert explicitly retracting an active-shooter classification
Outcome
Suspect Stig Ure, 25, was arrested without incident and charged with assault; $500,000 bond set. No injuries from the active-shooter alert itself, but widespread community fear. WSU and Winona County Emergency Management launched a joint review of alert-system protocols.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    Agencies review emergency alerts after confusion (Winona Post)
    winonapost.com
  2. News
    Police: Alert about active shooter was mistakenly sent to some Winona residents (KARE 11)
    kare11.com
  3. News
    Winona authorities and WSU take closer look at emergency alert systems after incorrect alerts sent (KTTC)
    kttc.com
  4. News
    $500K bond set for man charged with assault in Winona that led to shelter-in-place order (Winona Daily News)
    winonadailynews.com
  5. News
    Assault Triggers False Active Shooter Alert in Winona (Y105 FM)
    y105fm.com
  6. Official
    WSU Alert System FAQs (Winona State University)
    winona.edu
Tags
false-alertcorrectionactive-shooter-alertminnesotawinona-statepublic-mastersalert-system-failurediversity-prioritysmall-state-campusUnfounded
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion