South campus residence halls and buildings on west campus were put on lockdown Friday from approximately 9 to 10:30 p.m. while Seattle Police Department (SPD) and UW Police Department (UWPD) officers searched for a shooting suspect believed to be in the area.

The shooting occurred just before 9 p.m. near the intersection of Northeast 42nd Street and University Way Northeast. The victim was shot once in the jaw and was taken to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition. He was later stabilized. The suspect, whom the SPD confirmed was a black male, possibly an adult, fled southbound and is still at large.

RAs in Lander Hall were told by the resident director on duty just after 9 p.m. that an emergency situation was occurring and that the dorms were being locked down. At approximately 10:30 p.m., UWPD Police Chief John Vinson said west campus was cleared to reopen as the SPD concluded its initial search.

However, it was not until the following morning that the UW community was officially notified of the incident via a timely warning notification e-mail.

“My friend called me and told me she heard screaming and told me to get off the Ave,” said sophomore Apisada Petchtes. “Then another friend called and said there was a shooting and to get inside a building.”

The UW Alert system that sends emergency text messages to students, faculty and staff who subscribe to the system was not utilized Friday night. This system is part of the UW’s Crisis Communications Plan that was created after a 2007 shooting on campus, and is separate from the timely warning notification e-mails.

“I think because this occurred on a weekend evening, the mechanisms for enacting the UW Alert occurred more slowly than usual,” said UW spokesperson Norm Arkans. “This was a good learning experience. Fortunately, none of our students was hurt, and it will give us an opportunity to adjust our protocol so that we can respond in the future.”

Many students were upset about the fact that the UW Alert system was not used and that the timely warning notification e-mail was not sent out until about 14 hours after the shooting occurred.

UW Police Chief John Vinson said that the UWPD was focused Friday night on addressing the incident.

“We were in the midst of securing the safety and security of our immediate student population in the southwest residence halls,” Vinson said. “Once that had been completed and the situation was no longer evolving, the immediacy for the UW Alert had already passed.”

Some students have expressed that they would rather have been notified about the incident as soon as possible, even if the threat had passed.

“I was a little bit upset that I heard about it on the news before I heard about it from the university,” said doctoral student Erik Andersen. “I would have liked someone with an interest in student safety to say, ‘We believe there is no longer a threat.’”

Members of the UW’s crisis team will meet this week to discuss when and how to most effectively use the UW Alert system.

“At the minimum, what this will encourage us to do in the future is to convene the crisis team regarding those situations, and the decision will be made whether or not an alert will be sent out at that time,” Vinson said.

In response to Friday night’s shooting and the lack of notification from the university, some students have begun developing a notification system of their own called the Student Crime Alert Network (SCAN) to inform the community when similar incidents occur in the future.

The members of SCAN hope to use a computer program to scan the real-time 911 dispatch system and notify members of the group via Facebook and e-mail when an emergency call pertains to the University District. The group plans to meet with campus administrators to better develop the program.

“We want to work with the police,” said Jason Padvorac, a member of the group. “And we want to take ownership of this as a community to make the U-District safer.”

Reach news editor Casey Smith and editorial assistant Lexie Krell at news@dailyuw.com.

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