UMass police said they don't believe the assailants are UMass students.
Things returned to normal at UMass Amherst Thursday night, just a couple of hours after a school-wide “shelter in place” order was sent out by campus police. The lockdown followed what police described as an armed confrontation at a residence hall.
At about 7:15 pm, the shelter in place order was lifted. It all began, UMass police said, when two men described by witnesses as white assaulted a UMass student. A handgun was shown, police said, but not fired. The men fled and the student was treated for a head wound at a nearby hospital.
The university has been preparing for a moment like this since at least 2007, when it first established emergency text messaging and an outdoor public address system that can be heard beyond the campus. That was also the year of the Virginia Tech shooting that killed 32 people.
“We always have the tests for the emergency system,” said student Michael Bresnahan. “It worked. We heard the sirens and the emails came in and everyone got them at the same time.”
Bresnahan lives on the third floor of Patterson Hall, a few hundred feet away from where the assault was reported.
It was cold, but his windows were open, and he heard the alarm through the screen. He said he and friends were in a popular dining hall when the alarm sounded. The cafeteria was filled, they were well fed, and they stayed informed through social media. Everyone took it seriously, but no one panicked.
“So we heard some things. And it wasn’t the sort of situation that you would be as scared as one of those other school shootings that you’ve heard of,” he said. “It was -- as far as I know -- a different situation. I don’t want to speculate.”
UMass police said they don’t believe the assailants are UMass students or that this was a random assault. The investigation remains active.
NEPR's Jill Kaufman contributed to this report, which was originally published at NEPR.net.