{
  "id": "2014-10-27-university-of-the-incarnate-word-rifle-lockdown",
  "slug": "university-of-the-incarnate-word-rifle-lockdown-2014-10-27",
  "institution": {
    "name": "University of the Incarnate Word",
    "shortName": "UIW",
    "state": "TX",
    "type": "private-masters",
    "alertSystemName": "UIW Rave Alert"
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2014-10-27",
    "type": "lockdown",
    "cleryCategory": "emergency-notification",
    "resolution": "suspect-not-apprehended",
    "headline": "Reported rifle sighting prompted two overnight campus sweeps; no suspect found",
    "headlinePublic": "Reported rifle sighting prompted two overnight campus sweeps; no suspect found",
    "summary": "On the evening of October 27, 2014, reports spread via social media that a man was seen wandering [the University of the Incarnate Word's San Antonio campus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_the_Incarnate_Word) carrying a rifle. Campus police, Alamo Heights, and San Antonio police converged on the Broadway and Hildebrand campus for a comprehensive search. University officials later said no official lockdown had been declared during that first response and attributed the reports to students' social media posts, according to the [San Antonio Report](https://sanantonioreport.org/uiw-lockdown-lifted-after-suspected-gunman-stalks-campus/). A second suspicious-activity report later that night prompted a formal UIW Rave Alert at 12:26 a.m. CDT on October 28, 2014. The suspected rifleman was never located in either sweep.",
    "outcome": "Suspected rifleman never located in either search. No injuries. University officials and circulating student reports differed on whether a lockdown was in effect during the first search. Second sweep cleared campus by early October 28.",
    "casualties": {
      "killed": 0,
      "injured": 0
    }
  },
  "alerts": [
    {
      "sequence": 1,
      "type": "initial",
      "timestamp": "2014-10-28T00:26:00-05:00",
      "channel": "sms",
      "verbatimText": "UIW campus on lockdown. University police have received another report of a possible armed individual on campus.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://sanantonioreport.org/uiw-lockdown-lifted-after-suspected-gunman-stalks-campus/",
      "sourceDescription": "San Antonio Report, quoting the official UIW Rave Alert sent at 12:26 a.m.",
      "annotations": [
        "The word 'another' inside the official Rave Alert indicates there had been an earlier armed-individual report that evening that produced no Rave notification, the point on which official and student accounts of the night differed",
        "This was the first message of the night delivered through UIW's institutional Rave notification system rather than student social media",
        "The second sweep also found no armed individual; the campus was eventually cleared in the early morning hours"
      ],
      "characterCount": 112
    },
    {
      "sequence": 2,
      "type": "all-clear",
      "timestampApprox": "Early morning CDT, October 28, 2014",
      "channel": "sms",
      "verbatimText": "",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": false,
      "sourceDescription": "San Antonio Report on the resolution of the second sweep",
      "annotations": []
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "UIW Lockdown Lifted After Suspected Gunman Stalks Campus (San Antonio Report)",
      "url": "https://sanantonioreport.org/uiw-lockdown-lifted-after-suspected-gunman-stalks-campus/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "University of the Incarnate Word (Wikipedia)",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_the_Incarnate_Word",
      "type": "other"
    }
  ],
  "context": "The [University of the Incarnate Word](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_the_Incarnate_Word) is a private Catholic university in the Alamo Heights neighborhood of San Antonio, Texas, with about 9,000 students. The October 27, 2014 incident began with unconfirmed social media reports of a man with a rifle on campus, which led to two separate police sweeps of the grounds in one night. During the first response, campus police, San Antonio Police, and Alamo Heights Police converged on the Broadway and Hildebrand campus, but [university officials later disputed that any official lockdown had been ordered](https://sanantonioreport.org/uiw-lockdown-lifted-after-suspected-gunman-stalks-campus/) and attributed the circulating reports to student social media posts. Hours later, a second report triggered a formal UIW Rave Alert at 12:26 a.m. CDT on October 28, 2014, the first officially documented institutional alert of the evening. Both sweeps found no armed individual. The incident came less than a year after the December 2013 shooting of student Cameron Redus by a UIW police officer, a death that had drawn intense local scrutiny of UIW campus law enforcement. The rifle-sighting case illustrates the gap that can open between student social media reporting and official institutional alert channels during a fast-moving incident.",
  "confidence": "medium",
  "tags": [
    "lockdown",
    "false-alarm",
    "social-media-driven",
    "communications-failure",
    "private-masters",
    "texas",
    "san-antonio",
    "suspect-not-found",
    "2014"
  ],
  "dateAdded": "2026-05-31",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-07-16",
  "addedBy": "ingestion"
}