News

There's An Active Shooter At Ohio State

by Lani Seelinger

As of Monday morning, there is an active shooter on Ohio State's Columbus campus, and the school's emergency management system has encouraged anyone present to keep themselves safe. They told students that there is an active shooter on campus, and that they should "Run Hide Fight" in order to keep themselves safe. Update: The scene is now secure and the shooting situation is over, according to the Associated Press.

The shooting, which has so far left seven injured and one suspect dead, took place near Watts Hall, which is a very busy part of the Ohio State campus. The area sees a lot of foot traffic on any given day, and that choice of location has left many even more shaken after the shooting. Ohio State is one of the biggest universities in the country, and the Columbus campus is where 58,000 undergraduate and graduate students go to school every day. The school's emergency management system told everyone in the area to either get to shelter or stay where they were. They have since tweeted updates on the situation, including information on closed areas and an alert that classes are canceled for the whole day. Although the initial danger has passed, everyone in the area will undoubtedly remain on high alert.

While they were still unclear on the details of the situation, the tweet itself leaves no room for interpretation — students, faculty, and anyone else present needs to keep themselves safe at all costs.

Their further tweets have told anyone hiding to stay where they are and to follow instructions from police in the area.

The emergency management system has not released any concrete details about the shooter or the scene, but they have told anyone there to call 911 if they have any information that could help the situation.

Apparently as it stands now, one suspect in the shooting has been confirmed dead. There are other reports saying that eight people have been injured in the shooting, with at least one in critical condition. All of these people have been taken to area hospitals, and there have not yet been any further reports on their condition. In the meantime, tweets of support have been pouring in from Ohioans and others:

Unfortunately, as school shootings have become tragically common in the past decade or so, there have also been words of caution for the people their and their loved ones elsewhere. Families and friends of OSU students, faculty, and staff are advised not to text or call their loved ones, because they might be hiding. It's safer to wait until they reach out to say that they are okay, or until the situation has normalized.

The police are still maintaining a strong presence on campus, even though one suspect is already dead.

It has not been confirmed that there was only one shooter, so they're still telling everyone to stay in their current shelter until they can make sure of that. Facebook has now activated safety check-in for the incident, which will hopefully allow students and others to get in touch with their loved ones more quickly.

Ohio State will surely be on everyone's mind today, for the worst possible reason. Although the scene has now been declared safe, everyone will no doubt stay on high alert as information about the incident continues to trickle out.