Early morning incident raises concerns
A mass Connect-ED message, including a text alert and recorded voicemail, went out to GCSU students, faculty and staff early this past Friday alerting of a “person with a weapon” on campus in Milledgeville. The message, sent by campus police at 4:54 a.m., advised recipients to “stay barricaded until given an all clear.”
The warning came in response to an incident involving an alleged gunman who threatened his ex-girlfriend and two men who were with her, according to officials. Holden M. Furner, 20, of Gainesville, was later arrested and charged with several felonies. He is not a GCSU student.
A second alert later went out at 5:36 a.m. advising of Furner’s arrest and for recipients to resume normal activities.
Olivia Holden, a freshman art major, said she snapped to attention as her roommate groggily read the alert message aloud.
“I ran into my suitemates’ room. We locked the door, jumped in the same bed and huddled together talking about the situation when we heard a male voice yelling right outside our window,” Holden said.
Holden said she heard someone yelling.
“We heard him say, ‘I’m going to kill you, and it’s the fastest way to heaven or hell,’ ” Holden said. “We were terrified. So at that point we immediately called 911.”
Dave Groseclose, assistant vice president for public safety, said campus police was informed of the incident around 4:30 a.m. by the Milledgeville Police Department.
“(Environmental Health and Occupational Safety Coordinator) Justin (Gaines) went ahead and did the Connect-ED message from his home,” Groseclose said. “I drove as fast as I ever have getting into town. I got here about ten minutes to five and about 5:30 a.m. we had the man in custody.”
According to a college news release, Furner was charged with three counts of making terroristic threats, underage possession of alcohol and a misdemeanor obstruction charge following a scuffle during his arrest.
Despite the apparent quick response, some students were still skeptical of the effectiveness of the Connect-ED system following the incident.
Andrew Nonemaker, a freshman in Wells Hall, was relieved at the arrest, but continues to forgo being alerted via Connect-ED.
“I am not signed up for the Connect-ED program, and don’t feel that this incident will affect my habits, except make me more aware of my surroundings,” Nonemaker said.
Gaines said he has concerns about the safety of those students who have not signed up with alert-message system.
“I think that’s one of our largest limits. You can put the notification that we have Connect-ED everywhere, but you have some students who just don’t put two and two together until these types of situations,” Gaines said.
Students often rely on the physical presence of the police officers around GCSU and Milledgeville to keep a watchful eye on their well-being.
Given GCSU’s pedestrian-friendly Main Campus, students often walk to many destinations around campus and the downtown area.
“I don’t feel any less safe, though the incident is scary to think about,” senior Jennifer Kneisel said. “I feel that Public Safety responds very quickly to anything like that.”
Holden and Kneisel felt concern, worry and relief as they read the warning and resolved Connect-ED messages later in the morning this past Friday.
Gaines and Groseclose want to reach the vast majority of the students when emergencies hit. To do this, they say they’re continuing to look for ways to improve communication.
“We’ve been approved now for a mass-alert siren to be placed on Main Campus and West Campus, much like a tornado siren. If we had say, an armed assailant, what would happen is the dispatcher could push the button that’s pre-scripted for armed assailant and your response time for that is seconds, not minutes,” Gaines said. “Then I could send out the Connect-ED message and overlap our emergency communication.”
Posted by Elise Colcord
on Jan 29 2010. Filed under News.
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