Some students at the University of Ottawa are questioning why they weren't immediately notified about a gunman on the university grounds Sunday evening. He fired off five shots near the campus before being arrested on campus by police. The incident started on Chapel Street and ended with his arrest inside the parking garage at the university's Sports Complex.
“I didn’t know about it until now,” says one young student as she crosses the street near uOttawa, blocks away from the shooting and police pursuit on Sunday.
It was the scariest few seconds of Sidney Marshall's life. Five gunshots fired right outside the house that she was moving into early Sunday evening on Chapel Street.
"I thought it was fireworks or firecrackers,” Marshall said yesterday, “because it's frosh at the university. I didn’t' know it was a gun.”
After firing five shots at another man shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday, the gunman ran down Chapel Street and into the parking garage at the University of Ottawa's Sports Complex. Within minutes, police had arrested him and recovered a loaded semi-automatic handgun. No one was injured; 22-year-old Phillip McGuffie has been charged with multiple offences .
“Students were at risk,” says Acting Staff Sergeant Ken Bryden with the Ottawa Police Guns and Gangs Unit, “Unfortunately these incidents are traumatic, violent events. There's a firearm being discharged in an open area in a situation that's not controlled.”
Bryden says the risk was great to pedestrians and motorists along the path the gunman took.
Within an hour, the university had tweeted about the incident, saying "the campus is safe. We are collaborating with police in ongoing investigation."
But even today, many students hadn't heard about the shooting.
“I think they should have sent something to everyone's email,” says one university student.
Another student believes the university missed an opportunity to use its new emergency preparedness system to warn the campus about a potential threat. The uOttawa Alert System can send out text messages to students who have registered with the system, in the event of a chemical spill or violent incident.
"I know the University of Ottawa has put it in place in recent years,” says Liam Vanderbraak, a student of Human Kinetics, “So I know it's a brand new system. They've been testing it over the summer so we know it works. It just wasn’t put into place in this serious incident.”
The yniversity says it did go door to door at the Minto Complex afterwards to make sure people were reassured but the shooting itself was over so quickly.
"By the time our Protection Services were notified,” says Patrick Charette, the director of uOttawa’s Corporate Communications, “it was over. The police had arrested one individual and it was over so there was no need to activate our emergency notification system.”
Sunday's shooting marks the 28th in Ottawa this year. Police believe it was a confrontation between two people. The intended target hasn't been identified.
