Photo by Helen Crofts (@croftsyyy)
Students were all atwitter on Burnaby Mountain as the RCMP flooded the campus on Wed. Jan 8, responding to a threat made against the university.
On their website and Facebook page, the university stated at 1:31p.m., “There is a police incident at SFU’s Burnaby campus. The university remains opens.”
The intersection at Gaglardi and South Campus Road was shut down for approximately one hour as police interviewed persons on the scene.
Several students tweeted SFU for information as the incident unfolded, which had begun prior to SFU’s Facebook announcement. Helen Crofts, a member of the SFU track and field team, tweeted at 1:12p.m., “Police everywhere @SFU and asking to see peoples id. Hope everything is ok!”
Students waiting at the transportation centre bus loop were left stranded for approximately 45 minutes until the university announced that the police incident was over and began letting buses proceed through the intersection.
The SFU website and Facebook page later confirmed that the police incident had been resolved “without issue,” but students questioned why the university had not employed their recently implemented emergency system, SFU Alerts. The university replied that “this incident did not warrant its use.”
SFU and campus security have refused to comment on the nature of the threat, as the matter is currently under police investigation. However, in a update on their website and Facebook page, Simon Fraser released the following statement on Thurs, Jan 9:
“On Wednesday January 8, 2014, the Burnaby RCMP and SFU Campus Security responded to a threat made by unknown persons against the University.
Access to the Burnaby campus was briefly restricted by the RCMP as an initial precautionary measure; the police quickly determined there was no threat to the campus community. University operations were not affected by this incident and the University is operating as normal.”
“What I can say is, the incident was not a threat to SFU students,” Steven Maclean, director of campus security, commented. “As an initial precautionary measure police closed Gaglardi Way at South Campus Road, however the investigation quickly determined that there was no threat to the community and the road was reopened. There was no impact to University operations.”
