Police officials arrested the man responsible for placing Kent State University under a lockdown after he fired a shot to scare a woman at the campus. He was picked up from a nearby hospital in Portage County around 11:35 p.m., Wednesday.
Witnesses said that the man was spotted having an argument with a woman shortly after 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, near Bowman Hall, an academic hall at the university. He then brandished a gun, fired it into the ground and fled from the scene. The woman too left the scene in a car. One of the witnesses overheard the woman telling 'no' to the suspected gunman before he fired the weapon, Washington Times reports.
The campus was placed on lockdown at 9.15 p.m. The University in an official statement warned the community to stay put and described the suspect as a "black male wearing basketball shorts and carrying a silver handgun." About two buildings were completely evacuated.
The lockdown was lifted just before 11:00 p.m. after police were sure the suspected shooter was not near the campus,Fox 8 reports.
Officials are unsure as to why the man was present at the hospital when nobody suffered injuries in the incident. They have not yet identified both the shooter and the woman.
The suspect is currently being detained at Robinson Memorial Hospital in Ravenna.
McKenzie King, a 19-year-old freshman living in Manchester Hall on campus, said that it was scary to learn about the shooting and lockdown.
"My heart dropped when I first found out," King said. "It was scary at first. I was worried. I got really scared then," Cleveland reports.
This is not the first shooting incident at KSU. National Guard members shot and killed four students at KSU during a Vietnam War protest, May 1970.
