Illinois State University police chief Aaron Woodruff said university police did not issue a campuswide emergency alert immediately following a shooting near campus early Sunday morning because it took time to verify where the shooting had occurred and to collect other pertinent information.
“I think there was just a lot of confusion of where it happened and what happened,” Woodruff said.
Six people were injured in the shooting that happened in the 700 block of Franklin Avenue of Normal, a residential area south of campus, at about 2:40 a.m.
The decision to not send an emergency alert has drawn some criticism, including from Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza. She said she has a personal connection to one of the victims — an ISU freshman.
"I am also disappointed that apparently ISU did not issue an emergency alert as administrators have done in other shooting incidents near campus," Mendoza wrote on Facebook. "Parents should feel safe sending their children off to college, not worried they won’t make it home one night."
As a matter of practice, ISU issues campuswide alerts when they are threats to public safety, but Woodruff said those are determined on a case-by-case basis.
Woodruff said Normal Police officers responded when they heard reports of gunfire but were initially unable to pinpoint a location.
“We were getting some conflicting information about where it was and so by the time they sorted it out — the location and what had occurred — that imminency had kind of passed,” Woodruff said, adding that at least some of the victims were not on scene when police arrived.
Normal Police Chief Steve Petrilli said four of the victims were taken by private transportation to Bloomington-Normal hospitals and the Normal Fire Department transported two victims to the hospital.
It's not clear when Normal Police determined the exact location of the shooting. Petrilli did not immediately respond to an inquiry about the initial police response.
Normal Police issued an advisory to the media and the general public at 8 a.m. ISU Police issued its first statements to the public later in the morning to indicate two of the victims were ISU students.
Normal Police led the investigation because it happened off-campus. Woodruff said that added another layer of verification that slowed the process.
“If this same incident happened on campus, an alert probably would have been issued, and it probably would have been issued pretty quickly,” Woodruff said.
Woodruff noted the ISU police supervisor who decided not to issue the alert was the same supervisor who issued the crime alert on Feb. 14 after an off-campus shooting on Main Street that also happened during the early morning hours.
Woodruff said he “absolutely supports” the decision not to issue an alert in this case.
“I have to stand by my supervisor’s decisions. They are the ones at the scene, weighing all that information in trying to make a judgement call,” Woodruff said.
St. Patrick’s Day parties
The circumstances of what led to the shooting remain unclear, though several witnesses reported a large party in the area.
Woodruff noted there were a lot of off-campus parties on Saturday, but he’s not certain if this incident was tied to any St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.
"I'm not quite sure if it mattered. I think it was a combination of nice weather and yeah probably [Unofficial St. Patrick's Day]. People will look for any opportunity to celebrate something whether it's close to St. Patrick's Day or not,” Woodruff said.
Normal Police have said they continue to investigate the shooting. They ask anyone with information related to this incident to contact Detective Kyle McComber at 309-433-3415 or kmccomber@normalil.gov.
