Yesterday some person was sighted walking toward the main UCI campus with the following attributes:
- blond hair
- tall
- camo pants
- "desert type" boots
- a rifle?
So the campus sent out, via "zotalert," their text messaging alert program, an alarming message announcing this. It didn't declare a lockdown, or recommend that we stay indoors, but merely said that if we saw this individual we should "call 911 immediately." Add to this the sound of a helicopter circling overhead, multiple police on motorcycles riding around the pedestrian areas of campus, and a visible figure on a nearby tall building. My cohort and I decided to stay safe in our locked office rather than venture across campus to the building where we had an afternoon class.
We speculated that this potential gunman was maybe:
- affiliated with this week's "I-Fest," a pro-Israel propaganda display near the student center
- angry about "I-Fest"
- an isolated white supremacist out to get our mainly non-white student body
- a young man experiencing that magic time when his brain decides it's time for a psychotic break
- not a gunman
The last option proved correct, as it turned out that the "rifle" was just an airsoft gun. Oh good! Just some young man simulating violence, nothing serious! And so all the bro-dawgs got back to ogling young asses hanging out of hotpants in peace.
