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Apr 30, 2008 10:00 pm US/Eastern
FAU Lockdown Lifted, Shooting Suspect In Custody
Campus Resumes Normal Operations Thursday
Wednesday's Finals Rescheduled For Saturday
BOCA RATON (CBS4) ―
A lockdown at the Boca Raton campus of Florida Atlantic University has been lifted as FAU police confirm the suspect, wanted for firing shots during an on-campus party, has been taken into custody.
23-year old Omar Graham, of Royal Palm Beach, was arrested in Miami at Johnson and Wales University, according to police.
Despite the fact that the lockdown has been lifted, the campus will remain closed Wednesday. The campus will resume normal operations on Thursday. Finals that were scheduled for Wednesday have been moved to Saturday and will take place at the same time and location they were originally scheduled, FAU's provost's office said.
The campus was locked down early Wednesday morning when a verbal fight escalated into violence during a party at the University Village Apartments. FAU police Chief Charles Lowe said two shots were fired and person was grazed in the arm. That person was not a student.
CBS4's Sharrie Williams spoke to FAU President Frank Brogan. "Even though some time has passed, now we know it was an isolated incident, it was not a shooter on a rampage, you know that no one was seriously injured, you breathe a sigh of relief but when that first phone call comes in to the president's home in the middle of the night indicating that there has been a shooting on one of your campuses, it's hard to describe the bone chilling effect that that has."
Brogan said they received word of the shooting at 1:16 a.m. and activated the new Siren System at 1:46 a.m.
"The Siren System was activated virtually immediately after it was determined that there was in fact a shooting here on the FAU Boca Raton campus," said Brogan. "The system has been in place for about 60 days and hasn't yet been fully tested and yet we were very pleased that not only did the sirens sound around campus, but also the public address message that indicating that there was an emergency on campus and people should move indoors to shelter and safety. It was a brand new system that did seem to work."
In addition to the Siren System, university police also utilized a reverse 911 system to call students, sent out a mass email alert, and posted the alert on the university's website.
"At first it was almost a joke, is this really happening, maybe nothing actually happened or a shot was fired somewhere or someone pulled out a cap gun, we were all joking around but once the alert was posted, we actually got kind of nervous," said student Ayden Mayer.
About 2,400 students who live on campus were ordered to remain in their apartments and dormitories, and food would be brought to them, university President Frank Brogan said.
The Boca Raton campus of Palm Beach Community College, which is on the FAU campus, was also closed, as was the A.D. Henderson school and the Karen Slattery Child Care Center.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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