Yale University has been given the all-clear after an anonymous caller told the police a gunman was on campus, causing a university-wide lockdown on Monday, Nov. 26.

Anonymous Tip: Gunman On Yale Campus

On Monday at 9:48 in the morning, the New Haven Police Department (NHPD) received an anonymous tip from someone claiming to be a Yale student. The caller claimed that his roommate had a gun on campus and planned to use it. The call, made from a pay phone close to campus, ended abruptly and no further information was given to authorities. At 10:50 a.m., nearly an hour later, the NHPD and Yale Police Department (YPD) issued a campus wide alert via text, e-mail and phone informing all campus personnel, students and faculty that the campus was on lockdown. Due to Thanksgiving break, many students had already left campus when the lockdown began.

Yale University Lockdown

“Confirmed report of person with a gun on/near Old Campus. SHELTER IN PLACE. This is NOT a test,” read the Yale alert text message according to the Yale Daily News.

According to the Yale University newspaper, the FBI and SWAT teams joined the NHPD and YPD to facilitate the search for the alleged gunman, which included room searches. After receiving just one other confirmed sightings of the gunman and no injuries reported on campus, the lockdown was lifted at 4:50 p.m.

During a press conference, NHPD Chief Dean Esserman stated that the second tip, which came from a Yale employee and reported a man walking with a gun on campus, could have been a misunderstanding as it was reported after the NHPD and YPD had arrived on campus and could have been a police officer.

Yale Gunman: Possibly A Hoax

Due to lack of evidence, the NHPD is considering the possibility that the initial phone call was a hoax, and will continue to investigate the matter no matter what.

“You don’t just walk away… no matter how long it takes… We are going to find who [made the phone call] and we’re going to put handcuffs on who did this,” Esserman said at a press conference.

Vice President of Yale University Linda Koch Lorimer echoed this statement in an open letter to the university, stating, “if it was a prank call that started this chain of events, the authorities intend to prosecute the individual to the fullest extent of the law.”

– Olivia Truffaut-Wong

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