Yesterday evening, an emergency alert message to campus was triggered when an individual discharged a weapon as the result of an apparent road rage incident, striking an off-campus business. The individual is not a current Tennessee Tech student.

Information obtained at the scene of the incident first suggested this was an accidental discharge. Authorities later learned that the individual deliberately fired their weapon, though apparently did not intend to strike a person or property.

There were no injuries, and the individual was taken into police custody within minutes and without further incident at the university’s Marc L. Burnett Student Recreation and Fitness Center. The individual did not bring their weapon into the facility. 

An “all clear” was announced within 15 minutes of the first emergency alert. The university does not have reason to believe that there was ever an active threat to our campus.

As often happens in these situations, details took some time to fully emerge. University leadership expresses its deep appreciation to our hardworking University Police and Cookeville Police who acted quickly to alert the campus community while they investigated and who maintain Tennessee Tech’s standing among the safest university campuses in the state.

University students, faculty, staff, parents and neighbors can sign up for real-time emergency alert messages through the university’s TTUAlert service at https://www.tntech.edu/police/ttualert.php.  

Return to News Room