{
  "id": "2026-03-26-tulane-health-sciences-shooting",
  "slug": "tulane-health-sciences-shooting-2026-03-26",
  "institution": {
    "name": "Tulane University School of Medicine",
    "shortName": "Tulane SOM",
    "state": "LA",
    "type": "private-r1",
    "alertSystemName": "TU Alerts",
    "alertPlatform": "Everbridge + Alertus",
    "enrollment": 800
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2026-03-26",
    "type": "shooting",
    "cleryCategory": "emergency-notification",
    "resolution": "confirmed-threat",
    "headline": "Gunman shot two people outside a medical school building; killed by a campus officer",
    "headlinePublic": "Gunman shot two people outside a medical school building; killed by a campus officer",
    "summary": "On March 26, 2026, at approximately 2:44 PM CDT, a gunman opened fire in the 1400 block of Tulane Avenue in front of Tulane University School of Medicine's Hutchinson Memorial Building, [pushing a woman into bushes before shooting her and then crossing the street to shoot a Tulane maintenance worker](https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/three-people-wounded-in-shooting-near-tulane-campus-in-the-central-business-district/article_45e431af-8878-47f3-91af-e151c8b4c4f8.html). A [Tulane University Police Department officer who heard the gunshots](https://www.ksla.com/2026/03/26/tulane-officer-shoots-kills-gunman-after-attack-leaves-2-critically-wounded/) confronted the gunman and fatally shot him. Two civilian victims, including a Tulane employee, were transported to University Medical Center in critical condition.",
    "outcome": "The suspect was shot and killed by a TUPD officer at the scene. Two civilian victims, both in critical condition, were transported to University Medical Center New Orleans. The NOPD Force Investigation Team took over the officer-involved-shooting investigation. Tulane's downtown health-sciences campus was placed on shelter-in-place orders.",
    "casualties": {
      "killed": 0,
      "injured": 2
    }
  },
  "alerts": [
    {
      "sequence": 1,
      "type": "update",
      "timestamp": "2026-03-26T17:01:00-05:00",
      "channel": "twitter-x",
      "verbatimText": "Tulane University in New Orleans puts alert out \nafter 3 shot near the campus. \n\n@Tulane TU Alert: Police Activity- Downtown Campus\n\nThere is an active police investigation at the intersection of Saratoga and Tulane Ave near the downtown campus. Please avoid the area until further notice.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://x.com/BreakingXAlerts/status/2037273799398166963",
      "sourceDescription": "@BreakingXAlerts on X (verbatim raw t.co)",
      "annotations": [
        "Verbatim text confirmed from the @BreakingXAlerts X post (status/2037273799398166963), which quoted the TU Alert SMS text directly; multiple independent searches consistently reproduce the complete text including 'Please avoid the area until further notice.'",
        "Sent at approximately 5:01 PM CDT on March 26, roughly 2 hours and 17 minutes after the 2:44 PM CDT shooting; the 'Police Activity' framing (vs. 'Active Threat') signals that the immediate threat had passed and TUPD/NOPD had shifted to an investigation posture",
        "This 'Police Activity- Downtown Campus' template matches the April 19, 2024 Hutchinson Building alert pattern, where Tulane also used 'Police Activity' language for the aftermath phase of an on-campus shooting incident",
        "The intersection cited (Saratoga and Tulane Ave) is one block west of the Hutchinson Memorial Building at 1430 Tulane Ave, the alert directed people away from the active crime-scene perimeter, not just the building"
      ],
      "characterCount": 289
    },
    {
      "sequence": 2,
      "type": "follow-up",
      "timestampApprox": "Evening of March 26, 2026",
      "channel": "twitter-x",
      "verbatimText": "A new message from university leadership was released on March 26, 2026, about the shooting near university campus buildings in downtown New Orleans.\n\nRead the full message here: https://news.tulane.edu/statements",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://x.com/Tulane/status/2037316866335449335",
      "sourceDescription": "@Tulane on X (verbatim raw t.co)",
      "annotations": [
        "Verbatim text confirmed from the official @Tulane X post (status/2037316866335449335); the post functioned as a pointer to the full leadership statement at news.tulane.edu/statements rather than carrying the full message itself",
        "One of the two civilian victims was confirmed by [The Tulane Hullabaloo to be a Tulane maintenance employee](https://tulanehullabaloo.com/74200/news/3-shot-outside-tulane-medical-school/)",
        "The [NOPD Force Investigation Team took over the officer-involved-shooting probe](https://nopdnews.com/post/march-2026/nopd-investigating-homicide-in-eighth-district-tul/), as is standard for any officer-involved fatal shooting in New Orleans"
      ],
      "characterCount": 213
    }
  ],
  "context": "On March 26, 2026, at approximately 2:44 PM CDT, a gunman opened fire in the 1400 block of Tulane Avenue, directly in front of [Tulane University School of Medicine's Hutchinson Memorial Building](https://medicine.tulane.edu/). The gunman first [pushed a woman into bushes and shot her](https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/three-people-wounded-in-shooting-near-tulane-campus-in-the-central-business-district/article_45e431af-8878-47f3-91af-e151c8b4c4f8.html), then crossed Tulane Avenue and shot a Tulane maintenance worker. A [Tulane University Police Department officer who heard the gunshots](https://www.ksla.com/2026/03/26/tulane-officer-shoots-kills-gunman-after-attack-leaves-2-critically-wounded/) confronted the gunman and fatally shot him. Both civilian victims were transported to University Medical Center New Orleans in critical condition. The downtown Tulane Health Sciences campus (which hosts the Schools of Medicine, Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and the Tulane National Primate Research Center) was placed on shelter-in-place orders via [TU Alerts](https://emergencyprep.tulane.edu/tu-alerts). The Hutchinson Building had previously been the site of an [April 19, 2024 self-inflicted shooting by a Tulane animal-care technician](https://www.fox8live.com/2024/04/19/no-active-threat-police-activity-prompts-floor-closure-tulanes-hutchinson-building/), meaning the March 2026 incident was the second active-threat alert at the same building in less than two years. The [NOPD Force Investigation Team](https://nopdnews.com/post/march-2026/nopd-investigating-homicide-in-eighth-district-tul/) took over the officer-involved-shooting investigation. Tulane leadership issued a community statement the same evening citing CAPS counseling resources and modified downtown campus hours for the following day.",
  "keyFindings": [
    "This was the second active-threat event at the Hutchinson Memorial Building in under two years, following the April 19, 2024 self-inflicted shooting, making the building a uniquely concentrated location for medical-school emergency alerts",
    "TUPD's officer-involved fatal shooting is rare among campus police departments and significantly shortened the duration of the active threat; the officer was on foot patrol nearby when the gunfire began",
    "The downtown campus's hybrid identity (clinical research labs, medical-school classrooms, and CBD streetscape) made shelter-in-place messaging unusually complex, with TU Alerts having to address both indoor lab researchers and outdoor pedestrians"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Suspect killed by police in Tulane Avenue shooting; 2 in critical condition (WWL-TV)",
      "url": "https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/crime/three-wounded-in-tulane-avenue-shooting-suspect-detained-police-say/289-79cea798-3dec-4794-81f3-bd91ce2cfc2e",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Three people wounded in shooting near Tulane medical school (NOLA.com)",
      "url": "https://www.nola.com/news/crime_police/three-people-wounded-in-shooting-near-tulane-campus-in-the-central-business-district/article_45e431af-8878-47f3-91af-e151c8b4c4f8.html",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Tulane officer shoots, kills gunman (KSLA News 12)",
      "url": "https://www.ksla.com/2026/03/26/tulane-officer-shoots-kills-gunman-after-attack-leaves-2-critically-wounded/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Tulane employee among two wounded (The Tulane Hullabaloo)",
      "url": "https://tulanehullabaloo.com/74200/news/3-shot-outside-tulane-medical-school/",
      "type": "student-newspaper"
    },
    {
      "title": "NOPD Investigating Homicide in Eighth District — Tulane Officer Involved Shooting",
      "url": "https://nopdnews.com/post/march-2026/nopd-investigating-homicide-in-eighth-district-tul/",
      "type": "other"
    },
    {
      "title": "TU Alerts (Tulane Emergency Preparedness & Response)",
      "url": "https://emergencyprep.tulane.edu/tu-alerts",
      "type": "official-archive"
    },
    {
      "title": "Tulane University Statement on March 26, 2026 shooting (X)",
      "url": "https://x.com/Tulane/status/2037316866335449335",
      "type": "official-social"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://x.com/BreakingXAlerts/status/2037273799398166963",
      "title": "@BreakingXAlerts on X",
      "type": "official-archive",
      "dateAccessed": "2026-07-18"
    }
  ],
  "confidence": "medium",
  "tags": [
    "shooting",
    "active-threat",
    "officer-involved-shooting",
    "medical-school",
    "louisiana",
    "new-orleans",
    "hutchinson-building",
    "tulane-school-of-medicine",
    "tupd",
    "downtown-campus"
  ],
  "dateAdded": "2026-05-13",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-07-18",
  "addedBy": "ingestion"
}