From the fourth floor of the Architecture Building, junior architecture majors Maya Bird-Murphy and Ellen Forthofer gathered against a wall of windows to watch the flurry of police across the street.
At first, the students didn’t know what was going on. They watched state police and sheriffs join the University Police Department around the rec center for about 15 minutes before they received a university alert.
That’s when Bird-Murphy said she realized it was serious.
“I feel like nothing that exciting ever happens in Muncie,” she said. “So they all got here pretty fast.”
Police officers were stopping the students from leaving through the front doors as a crowd of onlookers gathered in the parking lot between the Architecture Building and Noyer Complex, just beyond the perimeter the police were maintaining.
Forthofer said while they waited, they listened to police scanners, watched the news and some followed Twitter.
“I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t a big deal, with everything that just happened with the stabbing that turned out to be not a thing,” Forthofer said. “Even if it was an overreaction, I was glad for the police presence that was there.”
On her way back from Wal-Mart, freshman geology major Macy Whitacre first noticed the scene around the complex at about 5:30 p.m.
The driver announced that the bus was not able to turn down McKinley Avenue and dropped the passengers off at the north bus shelter on campus.
Whitacre said she saw police cars down the street, but she did not think anything of it. She only realized something was amiss when she found the doors to LaFollette Complex’s Brayton/Clevenger locked.
Someone inside, whom Whitacre thinks was a hall director, let her through.
She said resident assistants informed everyone about the situation and told them to turn off the lights and shut the blinds to make the rooms appear unoccupied from outside.
It was not until she was locked in her room, watching the news, that she received the university’s emergency notification.
“We turned on the news, and it became more real once we saw the buildings,” Whitacre said. “I was like ‘Oh! That’s my college.’”
To Forthofer, the accuracy of the university notifications made up for the lag between when she first saw a police response and the first notification.
“I could be a little bit naïve, but I’ve never felt unsafe on campus,” she said. “It was a scary situation, and I’m just glad that everything turned out OK.”
How the night unfolded
6 police departments search for reported armed assailant at Ball StateBehind the tape
Ball State students share experiences of being locked down in Student Recreation and Wellness CenterFrom miles away
Off campus community, parents watched police chase from a distanceDaily News staff contributed to this story.
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