{ "id": "2007-09-26-st-johns-university-armed-man-lockdown", "slug": "st-johns-university-armed-man-lockdown-2007-09-26", "institution": { "name": "St. John's University", "shortName": "St. John's", "state": "NY", "type": "private-r2", "alertSystemName": "St. John's Emergency Notification System", "enrollment": 20000 }, "incident": { "date": "2007-09-26", "type": "armed-person", "cleryCategory": "emergency-notification", "headline": "Freshman carrying a loaded rifle across campus tackled near the library; no injuries", "headlinePublic": "Freshman carrying a loaded rifle across campus tackled near the library; no injuries", "summary": "On the afternoon of September 26, 2007, a 22-year-old freshman, [Omesh Hiraman](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/campus-gun-scare-lands-student-in-jail/), walked across St. John's University's Queens campus carrying a loaded .50-caliber single-shot rifle in a black plastic bag while wearing a George W. Bush rubber mask. No shots were fired and no one was hurt; [unarmed campus security and an NYPD-cadet student tackled him](https://www.foxnews.com/story/police-arrest-alleged-gunman-on-st-john-university-campus) near a library. The incident became an early real-world test of the text- and phone-based emergency notification systems that campuses rushed to deploy after the [Virginia Tech shooting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_shooting) five months earlier.", "resolution": "confirmed-threat", "outcome": "Hiraman was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of criminal possession of a loaded weapon. Students were instructed to stay inside buildings until roughly 5:30 PM EDT and evening classes were cancelled. No injuries occurred.", "casualties": { "killed": 0, "injured": 0 } }, "alerts": [ { "sequence": 1, "type": "initial", "timestampApprox": "Mid-afternoon, approximately 2:30 PM EDT on September 26, 2007", "channel": "sms", "verbatimText": "On Queens Campus, Male was found on campus with rifle. Please stay in your buildings until further notice.", "isVerbatimConfirmed": true, "sourceUrl": "https://www.torchonline.com/uncategorized/2007/09/27/student-gunman-arrested-on-campus/", "sourceDescription": "The Torch (St. John's student newspaper)", "annotations": [ "This was among the first uses of St. John's text/phone notification system, which the university had stood up in the months after the April 2007 Virginia Tech shooting; the terse two-sentence SMS reflects the new constraint environment.", "The message reports 'Male was found on campus with rifle' and gives a shelter instruction ('Please stay in your buildings until further notice') without naming a building, leaving students to seek further detail from staff and campus channels.", "Reported as sent at approximately 2:30 PM EDT, around the same time students first spotted the armed man, illustrating how quickly the new system could push a campus-wide warning." ], "characterCount": 106 } ], "context": "St. John's University's Queens campus locked down on the afternoon of September 26, 2007, after a freshman was seen walking near St. John's Hall and Marillac Hall carrying a [.50-caliber single-shot rifle in a black bag and wearing a George W. Bush mask](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/campus-gun-scare-lands-student-in-jail/). Students tipped off Public Safety, and [unarmed campus security officers and a student who was also an NYPD cadet tackled the man](https://www.foxnews.com/story/police-arrest-alleged-gunman-on-st-john-university-campus) as he walked toward a library. The suspect, [Omesh Hiraman, 22](https://www.wtol.com/article/news/arrest-made-in-scare-at-st-johns-university/512-17e1dc3e-3787-4a03-a45f-ab732ea0209b), was arrested on a misdemeanor weapons charge. The case is notable less for its danger than for its timing: it came barely five months after the [Virginia Tech massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_shooting), during the national rush to deploy campus text-alert systems, and the brief verbatim SMS preserved by the student newspaper [The Torch](https://www.torchonline.com/uncategorized/2007/09/27/student-gunman-arrested-on-campus/) is an artifact of those first-generation systems.", "keyFindings": [ "The verbatim SMS ('On Queens Campus, Male was found on campus with rifle. Please stay in your buildings until further notice.') is a rare preserved example of a first-generation post-Virginia Tech campus text alert", "No shots were fired and no one was injured; the armed man was tackled by unarmed campus security and a student NYPD cadet", "The Queens campus was held under a stay-in-buildings instruction from roughly 2:30 PM EDT to 5:30 PM EDT and evening classes were cancelled", "The incident shows how the brand-new notification systems prioritized speed over detail, pushing a terse warning before the suspect's location or intent was fully known" ], "sources": [ { "title": "Student gunman arrested on campus - The Torch", "url": "https://www.torchonline.com/uncategorized/2007/09/27/student-gunman-arrested-on-campus/", "type": "student-newspaper" }, { "title": "Campus Gun Scare Lands Student In Jail - CBS News", "url": "https://www.cbsnews.com/news/campus-gun-scare-lands-student-in-jail/", "type": "local-media" }, { "title": "Police Arrest Alleged Gunman on St. John's University Campus - Fox News", "url": "https://www.foxnews.com/story/police-arrest-alleged-gunman-on-st-john-university-campus", "type": "local-media" }, { "title": "Arrest made in scare at St. John's University - WTOL", "url": "https://www.wtol.com/article/news/arrest-made-in-scare-at-st-johns-university/512-17e1dc3e-3787-4a03-a45f-ab732ea0209b", "type": "local-media" } ], "confidence": "medium", "tags": [ "weapons-violation", "lockdown", "new-york", "post-virginia-tech", "text-alert-system", "no-injuries", "early-notification" ], "dateAdded": "2026-05-28", "lastUpdated": "2026-07-16", "addedBy": "ingestion" }