After filming, on-site shelter order raised at Dartmouth College

HANOVER, N.H. – A person was shot near Dartmouth College in Hanover on Friday night, resulting in the closure of the Ivy League school and the fact that the police investigated additional information.

The affected person was not a student from Dartmouth and their condition was not known Friday night. The shooting took place at 21:50. in the Reading Room of Christian Science at 1 School Street, Dartmouth said in a statement.

According to a school statement released shortly after 11 pm, the gunman was on the run "and more shots were reported from different campuses." It was not clear if one or more suspects had been arrested early Saturday.

Shortly before 11:55 pm, the school described the situation as "active".

After more than two hours of lockout on campus, Dartmouth announced Saturday at 12:35 pm that the on-site shelter order had been lifted. Hanover police have investigated reports that shots were fired elsewhere on the campus, but "there was no evidence that shots were fired at these locations," the college said in a statement. .

A spokeswoman for Dartmouth confirmed in an email late Friday night that one person had been shot and taken to a hospital, adding that the shooting had taken place off campus and that the victim was not safe. was not returned to Dartmouth.

The Hanover police could not be contacted for comment.

A spokesman for the New Hampshire State Police said no information was available during the incident Saturday morning.

"Dartmouth has no other information from the Hanover police to share yet," said the school in a statement released Saturday at 12:35.

In a tweet, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununusaid, "State officials are aware of the changing situation in @Dartmouth in Hanover, and the NH National Police is on hand and was instructed to badist in any way possible. "

At the scene of the shooting, the Hanover police, firefighters and other rescue vehicles blocked School Street for about a block in each direction. A K-9 unit of the New Hampshire State Police was also on site. The Reading Room, which is part of the first scientist of the Church of Christ Scientist, is located about one block from downtown Hanover and about one block from the college.

Attempts to reach church officials were unsuccessful on Friday night.

The confinement of the campus does not seem to affect the downtown business. As regular rain fell outside, people were inside the restaurants and pubs, eating, drinking and watching sports on TV on the big screen. Just before midnight, workers preparing for the opening of a new business, Farmhouse Pottery, continued to import products from an Enterprise van into the Main Street building.

Restaurant patrons sometimes appeared around midnight and walked down the street, under umbrellas and towards their car.

In contrast, the Dartmouth campus seemed unusually quiet late Friday night. The streets closest to the dormitories were deserted. The main campus buildings, such as the Baker-Berry Library and the Hopkins Arts Center, seemed to close early.

The vast lobby of the library was still open just before midnight, but the doors of the reading rooms and books were locked. The library is usually open until 2 o'clock in the morning.

Some students described the confinement as confusing.

Skylar Miklus, an 18-year-old freshman from Dartmouth who grew up in Wellesley, Mbad., Said two people who were pbading by on campus said that there had been a nearby shootout. Another student rejected the comments as a joke, said Miklus.

Miklus then received an alert informing him of the shooting and took refuge in the basement of a fraternity.

"At first I could not understand that it was real," Miklus said by telephone from the basement of the building late Friday night, where she and 22 others had taken refuge. "Once I received the text, I realized that it was [real] and I was very panicked. "

Miklus described the campus atmosphere on Friday night as "definitely panicked" and "still nervous right now".

"It's a scenario that I've imagined many times since the Parkland shoot," said Miklus, who plans to specialize in philosophy just before midnight. "This has been a huge source of anxiety for me."

Jacob Maguire, a 19-year-old sophomore from North Kingstown, R.I., said that he was in his dorm around 10:20 pm. when he heard about a possible shooting in Hannover from a newsgroup. He received an official alert from the school about 10 minutes later.

He said he read articles about shootings on campuses and in schools throughout the United States and, through a Democratic campus organization, argued for gun safety reforms. . For a shooting in Hannover that prompted the Dartmouth campus to be locked, he said, it's "rather scary".

He said that he had sent a message to his siblings to let them know that he was fine and had also communicated with his mother-in-law to let him know that he was unhurt.

"I think my mother is asleep and I'm sure she'll be terrified when she hears about it," said Maguire, who plans to pursue majors in history and government.

Jimmy Cronin, a 19-year-old student from Rye, New York, said some students had initially dismissed reports of the shooting, thinking that it was probably a person playing with him. firecrackers. Then came a deluge of information. There were a lot of texts asking if he was fine and imploring him to stay safe, said Cronin, who squatted in his friend's dormitory and turned on a police scanner.

"Obviously, when something like this happens, you do not believe it happens," Cronin said in a telephone interview after midnight. "You hear about newspaper shooting in other places and you think it will never happen to me."

Correspondents Jackson Cote and Alejandro Serrano also contributed. Danny McDonald can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @Danny__McDonald. Bryan Marquard can be contacted at [email protected]