Vanderbilt University Public Safety sent out an AlertVU message to the Vanderbilt community on July 25 reporting a shooting at MAPCO on 21st Avenue. Within the hour, successive AlertVU messages said the shooting did not take place at MAPCO or on campus.
In a message to The Hustler, VUPS confirmed that a shooting did take place, and the victim was receiving medical attention from a doctor at MAPCO. VUPS was alerted of the situation while monitoring the Metro Nashville Police Department radio system.
The call for service on MNPD radios was issued from the MAPCO near campus, but the fact that the shooting did not take place on or directly near campus was not confirmed until after the initial AlertVU messages were sent.
“VUPS maintains the responsibility of keeping the community safe and informed,” VUPS said. “Complete details of an incident take time to develop and may constitute a time-gap too large to delay notification to the community of a possible threat.”
VUPS emphasized that the AlertVU message was not a false alarm and that the initial assessment of the situation warranted warning the community of potential danger. The direction of the shooter’s flight and the location of the shooting itself were not known immediately due to the injured victim being unable to communicate effectively.
“Monitoring threats to campus involves a comprehensive and systematic approach to ensure a safe environment for the Vanderbilt community,” VUPS said. “AlertVU notifications are issued for serious, imminent threats to the campus and are intended to assist the community in making safety decisions.”
Senior Amelia Murray is living near campus over the summer and said she thinks AlertVU is a good system to keep students informed.
“A bunch of my friends who are not in town texted me to make sure I was okay,” Murray said. “I do feel safe where I live, but in general, it made me nervous about gun violence in the area.”
Murray also said she wished the AlertVU messages brought more clarity to this particular situation.
“I wish AlertVU was a little more clear about what had happened not because it necessarily mattered for us in this case just because after all the alerts I think we were all left confused,” Murray said.
