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One student in custody after active shooter threat at Mississippi State

Posted at 11:46 AM, Aug 27, 2015
and last updated 2015-08-27 14:22:00-04

STARKVILLE, Miss. — There was no active shooter at the Mississippi State campus and reports of shots being heard are the result of “panic and clutter,” Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Chris Turnipseed told CNN on Thursday. A person of interest related to the initial emergency call was taken into custody, he said.

There was no weapon on him, Turnipseed said.

Sid Salter, Chief Communications Officer at Mississippi State University, told WHNT News 19 by phone the situation has been resolved and no shots were fired.  However, the school was on lockdown because it received a ‘credible threat,’ he said.

Salter said at 9:55 a.m. the Mississippi State Police Department received a call from an agency in Jackson.  The agency, which Salter declined to name, said they received a ‘credible threat’ from a student who said they were on MSU’s campus, threatening “suicide and homicide” according to Salter.

At 10:26 a.m. campus police took the student in custody at McCool Hall, MSU’s College of Business.

Salter stressed that shots were never fired and no weapon was recovered.

An all-clear less than an hour after the initial alert. Classes are suspended until 2 p.m. (3 p.m. ET), at which time campus operations will resume as normal, the university said.