University Of Illinois Accidentally Sends Out 'Shooter' Alert Email To Students

University Of Illinois Accidentally Sends Out 'Shooter' Alert Email To Students

Just one day after administrators at the University of Illinois approved a 6.9 percent tuition hike, those on the Urbana-Champaign campus received a terrifying message: there was an "active shooter" on campus.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's police department accidentally sent out a mass alert warning of an "active shooter" and telling students to escape the "area if safe to do so or shield/secure your location."

Just ten minutes later, however, U of I police Chief Barbara O'Connor sent the following message to those who received the original warning, according to the the News-Gazette:

PLEASE DISREGARD THE ILLINI-ALERT MESSAGE SENT REGARDING THE ACTIVE SHOOTER ON CAMPUS! The Illini-Alert message was sent accidently. We sincerely apologize for this accident.

The university also used its @Illinois_Alma Twitter account to notify students, faculty and staff of the false alarm:

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The university press office told the Tribune a worker updating the emergency message template accidentally sent the message instead of saving it. Though it was corrected quickly, it scared quite a few people first:

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