American University Was On Lockdown Because An Off-Duty Police Officer Brought His Gun Onto Campus
The Washington, D.C. school was on lockdown for approximately an hour and a half after the campus police department recieved a report of a man with a gun. At 9:25 p.m., the university reported that the lockdown had been lifted and a suspect was in custody.
It is unclear if the suspect and the off-duty police officer are the same person. During the lockdown, the university had distributed a photograph of two suspects - a male and a female.
AU released the following statement at 10:32 p.m. Wednesday:
About 15 minutes before the lockdown was lifted, the female suspect confirmed over Twitter that she and her boyfriend - the off-duty police officer - were the ones featured in the photograph being distributed. The woman also confirmed that she is an AU student and her boyfriend is an AU graduate who was visiting her on campus:
Many AU students were studying for finals at the time of the lockdown and shared photos on Twitter of the packed library: