Gunshot-Like Sounds Scare Va. Tech in False Alarm

Virginia Tech students and staff were startled yesterday after some reported hearing what sounded like gunshots near one of the university's largest residence halls about 1 p.m.

Evoking the same fear that gripped the university in April 2007, when a student went on a rampage and killed 32 people before turning a gun on himself, yesterday's incident led campus police to immediately seal off Pritchard Hall and alert the community about the potential danger. During a two-hour investigation, Virginia Tech and Blacksburg police determined that there was no evidence of gunshots being fired, and no one was injured.

Instead, the noises appear to have come from a nearby dumpster. School officials said yesterday that police believe a group of people, possibly students, used the dumpster's lid to explode cartridges from powder-actuated nailers -- powerful nail guns that are used to embed specialized fasteners into concrete and steel. Such nailers often use .22-caliber cartridges that sound like gunshots, and police found nail cartridges around the dumpster.

There is a construction site close to Pritchard Hall, and numerous witnesses said they saw people "messing with the dumpster" at the time of the reports, said Mark Owczarski, a Virginia Tech spokesman.

Yesterday, Pritchard Hall, home to about 1,000 students, turned into a scene eerily reminiscent of the massacre that shook Virginia Tech last year. Police locked down the building, stretched out crime-scene tape, swarmed inside and searched floor-by-floor and room-by-room for a shooter or casualties. They found none.

School officials, criticized last year for being slow to respond and for failing to alert the student population quickly enough, sent out campus-wide alerts yesterday and kept students updated through the afternoon.

School officials said they reacted with an abundance of caution after receiving multiple reports of potential gunshots.

"At the time, we felt it would be the best, safest and most prudent thing to do to notify the university community about what was happening," Owczarski said. "The bottom line is that we want to keep people informed about what's going on."

Students said police responded quickly and combed the dormitory for information, allowing students to leave the building but not allowing anyone to enter. A crowd of students gathered outside, some fearful that violence had again broken out.

Roy Cole, 18, of Ashland, Va., said he was in his sixth-floor Pritchard Hall room when he heard what sounded like a .22-caliber handgun going off outside. Cole, a freshman electrical engineering student, said he immediately thought of what happened on campus last year.

"That's what caused me to have concerns, because it's happened here before," Cole said. "I'm sure people are a bit more sensitive about these things now. There has been a lot of commotion going on about it today."