All clear given for active shooter alert

Campus Safety apprehends two suspects near Hart Hall for assault with a deadly weapon.

Christian Leonard, Editor-in-Chief • October 29, 2017

a man sits in the back of a squad car as a deputy looks over his notes

Photo courtesy of Christian Leonard//The Chimes

UPDATED ON OCT. 30, 2017 AT 12:44 P.M.

The campus went on lockdown after Campus Safety received a report from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department of an assault with a deadly weapon and released an emergency alert of an active shooter at approximately 7:42 p.m.

After receiving the report, Campus Safety deployed officers to lower campus. Officers determined the two suspects did not have a gun, but apprehended them outside Hart Hall for assaulting with a deadly weapon a person in the area near Roma Drive and Whiterock Drive, streets adjacent to lower campus. The situation has been cleared as of 9:06 p.m.

One of the suspects entered through the lower campus entrance and ran by the exterior of Hart Hall toward Stewart Hall, stopping momentarily to speak to senior kinesiology major and Hart resident Kenton Tom, according to undeclared freshman Connor Pritchett.

“I was just eating dinner in my room and then I turned to put something down and there was this guy standing outside my window,” Tom said. “And he was beckoning me and telling me to come closer.”

Tom and his girlfriend, who was with him, did not approach. After about a minute, the suspect departed from the window and ran toward Stewart, after which Tom notified one of the resident advisors of Hart of the encounter.

Tom did not recognize the suspect, but described him as an adult male in his 40s.

“I had heard sirens off campus and then I got here and then I was walking to Hart… and [officers] told me, they were like, ‘Go back up,’” said junior business administration major Tony Rangel. “I didn’t know what was happening until I saw the alerts.”

Freshman biochemistry major Avalon Eickhoff was sitting in a car when she received the text message alerts from Campus Safety.

“[I was] just kind of confused, a little worried,” Eickhoff said.

Campus Safety is currently working with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department to resolve the incident.

This is a developing story. Please check back later for updates.

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About the Contributor

Christian Leonard, Editor-in-Chief

Christian Leonard is a junior journalism major whose affinity for chickens is really getting out of hand. He can often be found singing in the office, wrapped around a book, or arguing for the classification of cereal as a soup. [email protected] I came to Biola a nervous freshman, not really sure what I wanted to do during my time at university. Years of prayer and waiting seemed fruitless, until an academic counselor recommended I contact the Chimes, since I had shown a modest interest in journalism. I figured it was worth a shot, so I got in touch with the news editors. After a brief chat, I left, figuring I would write for them the following semester. I was assigned my first story a few days later. The following semester, I became a news apprentice, stepping into a full editorship my sophomore year. Through the experience, I gained a greater appreciation for the bustling community that is Biola—its students, its administration, and its culture—and a deeper desire to serve it through storytelling. As my time as news editor drew to a close, I was encouraged to apply for the editor-in-chief position, a prospect which both intimidated and thrilled me. Yet I ultimately saw it as a way to better support the publication through which God showed me His desire for my life. Now, as I oversee the Chimes, I am committed to upholding myself and the newspaper to standard of excellence, and to helping train the next generation of student journalists.