By: Essence Buckman, senior writer
On the evening of Feb. 20, an email was sent to the Wofford community detailing an incident that had occurred. The email detailed that a Wofford student received a minor injury when a stray bullet fired off campus ricocheted off the ground and struck her in the leg.
The email continued, “Wofford Campus Safety received information from Spartanburg City Police that they were chasing a suspect on foot at a location off campus. The suspect was firing randomly. One of his bullets entered campus, striking the ground and then hitting a student who was near the Greek Village as she walked to the basketball game.”
In order to dispel any confusion about the incident concerning the safety of the college’s community members and visitors, campus safety officer Randy Hall and Laura Corbin, director of news services, gave info to clear any possible questions or misinformation to the best of their knowledge.
The incident occurred on Howard Street and was in the jurisdiction of the Spartanburg City Police. The incident was “not directly adjacent to campus,” Hall said. “It occurred in a housing building and one would not be able to see the college or even North Church Street if they were in that location.”
Corbin and Hall call this incident random and coincidental. They want to dispel any concern that the shooter was intentionally targeting someone on campus or that he was even on campus grounds.
“The bullet fell out of the sky literally,” Hall said. “No sounds of gunfire could be heard on campus.”
Hall also emphasized that the Campus Safety officers have a good relationship with the city and work closely with different departments of the city. He says that he is able to know what goes on in the city of Spartanburg and appreciates the help that the city of Spartanburg gives to the college. “In a few minutes, the officers and supervisor were on campus” Hall states, following the student’s call when they noticed a bullet on the ground.
Hall cannot speak on the medical condition of the student but assures that they were offered help. He describes the student as content and said they had no knowledge that they were even grazed with a bullet until they found the bullet on the ground and picked it up.
Before sending out the information of this incident, there was discussion whether an emergency alert should be sent out. Since the city police did not determine the campus to be in a threatened position, it was decided to send an email to solely give information about the incident.
“This was over as soon as it happened,” Hall said.
From this situation, Corbin and Hall want to remind the community to pay attention to the emergency alerts sent out. Corbin said the college “only wants to send out emergency alerts for emergency situations.”
Wofford does have the RAVE system set in place, accessible through myWofford. All faculty, staff and students are automatically registered in RAVE, but others, including family members, can be entered to receive updates.
Hall stresses that community members should add their cell numbers to the RAVE system since it is usually more accessible than being able to check an email through RAVE. Also, alerts should be taken seriously whether they are regarding a weather issue, active shooter/intruder on campus or any other possible threat.
“Safety, security and wellbeing is of the upmost importance,” Corbin said. “How Wofford officials respond to any situation wouldn’t be taken lightly.”