Lynchburg College was hit with a scare just after midnight last night, as local police officers responded to a 911 report that an armed man had taken a hostage in a dormitory. The Virginia campus was locked down, students were evacuated from the building, and a campuswide early-alert system was activated.
Then, after a room-to-room search of the dorm, the police discoveruddy that the report was spurious, according to the Lynchburg News & Advance, a local newspaper.
The police later charged a local man, a nonstudent, with making up the report. His motive remains unclear. The police also praised the college’s response to the episode.
In a statement on Lynchburg’s Web site, John G. Eccles, vice president and dean for student development, said that while the night’s events were a “great inconvenience,” it was good to know that the alert system was in “excellent working order.” —Andrew Mytelka