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As a slight drizzle of rain dampened the University of Louisville’s Belknap campus this morning, word was released concerning a hostage situation at the student health center.
At 8:32 a.m. university police received a call from the student health center regarding a woman armed with a gun. University police responded with officers on the scene at 8:39 a.m. and discovered that a victim was being held hostage, according to Cindy Hess, director of communication and marketing at U of L. The officer called for backup and the suspect was disarmed at 9:14 a.m.
This afternoon Metro Police identified and charged Gail Coontz with two counts of murder in the shooting deaths of her 14-year-old son, Greg, and 10-year-old daughter, Nikki.
Coontz, a student at U of L, is currently being held at University Hospital.
Blank stares and concerned voices occupied the student health center following the incident. Director of the student health center Vince Brown, along with other employees who were present for the incident, was unavailable for comment.
According to Hess, UofL Alert, U of L’s alert system in instances of emergency, was sent out to students at 9:04 a.m. regarding the hostage situation and informed those associated with U of L to avoid the health center.
Hess said the notifications included e-mails, posting on the university’s web page and text messaging.
“It is used only for emergency situations where we feel like the campus community is in danger,” said Hess.
Rudy Spencer, Student Government Association’s services vice president, said he received a text message warning him of the incident on campus as he was about to come to school.
“I’m happy that our services were able to identify that there was an issue and that [the Department of Public Safety] was able to be so responsive,” said Spencer, a junior political science major.
However, the alert notification system seemed off to some students, who may have received word from the university at 9:14 a.m., which is 10 minutes after the original statement by Hess.
Spencer thinks the alert system is effective, but lacks cohesion with the student body.
“Notifications should go out a maximum of 30 minutes after something happens,” he said. “The issue that we have with it is there are still only 6,000 students that have text messaging.”
U of L Provost Shirley Willihnganz said that one issue the university stresses is the importance of activating the text messaging alert system, which is currently sent to 6,883 students and faculty.
“That is something we are pushing very hard for,” said Willihnganz, who added that not enough students have signed up for the system in order to ensure its effectiveness.
More details to come.
