2 shelter-in-place alerts in 24 hours have CSU students uneasy

FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Two shelter-in-place alerts that came down in less than 24 hours have Colorado State University students on edge.

Both alerts were sent out Wednesday.  The first came after a person was found dead in a dorm.  The second was after a woman was stabbed. 

On campus Thursday, some students were feeling rattled. 

“I feel like CSU is really safe but yesterday was just unusual to deal with,” said Avery Burcham, a sophomore at CSU. 

“Very,” said sophomore Jules Webb and junior Chandler Webb. 

Around CSU, campus was buzzing after two separate incidents sent law enforcement to the school on Wednesday.

When that first alert came down notifying students of police activity in Alpine Hall, it directed students to stay away from the area while calling on students living in that building and others nearby to shelter in place. 

“I mean, we just woke up and all the halls around here were on lockdown early in the morning and we didn’t know why,” said Trenton Carr, a freshman living at Alpine Hall. 

“Because we have like Teams, like Microsoft Teams group chats for our hall. And I just kept getting alerts. And then, I started getting emails from CSU. We stopped being on lockdown at what, like 12:30 or something or I made it to my 3 p.m. class and everyone was saying there was a bomb threat? Like we had nothing, we had no idea what it was,” said Mia Larson, a freshman living in Alpine Hall. 

Nine hours later, CSU updated campus that they’d gone to the dorm for a welfare check, finding someone dead inside. The school said there is no threat and there are no suspects in this case. 

“And at around 8 p.m., 8:30ish we were put on another shelter in place because of a stabbing. So nobody knew if the person was alive, who it was. They gave us like a very vague description. So it like, it scared me for sure. I was on edge for a little bit,” said freshman Lincoln Jurado. 

Students are split on how transparent the school was being about what was happening on campus.

 “Everyone was just kind of like, what the hell is going on? Why won’t they tell us more? Why are we not more informed about a dead person and a crazy person on the loose?” Larson said. “I mean, like my parents are pissed we don’t know more. I know a lot of parents were trying to contact the school — obviously that didn’t do anything.”

“CSU does a good job with all that. You know, it’s just one of those things, they got to keep the students safe but at the same time, respect the privacy of whoever was involved,” said Charlie Beelaert, a sophomore living at Alpine Hall. 

“CSU did a great job keeping us safe and communicating with us. And yeah, hopefully it just doesn’t happen again,” said Caleb Babin, a sophomore living at Alpine Hall. 

“I thought there could have been more information. I did like that there was a witness statement of like, this is what you should be looking for,” Chandler Webb said. “Because I did have a friend that said, they think that they saw him trying to get into the Interior Design building. So that was good just to like, lock down, stay safe but also this is what our suspect looks like.” 

“Yeah, a little strange. But I think there could have been more information,” Jules Webb said. 

Still, most students said they feel CSU is safe. They’re hoping that this wild Wednesday was just one strange day of the school year.