A report of a gunman at the largest library on the University at Buffalo's North Campus in

Amherst late Tuesday afternoon made for a tense situation for more than three hours as the

building was evacuated and searched.

The report was never confirmed after an intense search by university and Amherst police.

Police armed with assault rifles surrounded Lockwood Memorial Library at about 4:30 p.m.

and shortly thereafter began searching the building floor by floor.

There were no reports of any shots fired.

UB Police Chief Gerald W. Schoenle said the incident began about 4:05 p.m. when University

Police received a tip that a male was outside the library and it looked like he had a rifle.

Police then used video surveillance cameras at the library.

They saw what looked to be a roughly 5-foot-6 white male in his early 20s with brown hair

and light facial hair wearing a pea coat. It looked as if he may have had something under his

coat, police said.

Schoenle said it wasn't possible to conclusively identify the object as a weapon but police

couldn't rule it out either.

"We used an abundance of caution," he said. "We take this very seriously on the college

campus."

So, officials immediately evacuated the library and issued a campuswide alert to staff and

about 15,000 students by text message at 4:40 p.m.

The alert stated: "Lockwood Library has been evacuated. Stay away from the building until

further notice." The campus was never under a lockdown.

Librarian Mary Soom said she was working with a student when an official walked into the

library and ordered everyone to evacuate.

"They said we have a report of a suspicious person with a suspicious object," Soom said. "I

was working with a student. When she heard it, she wanted to leave. It bothered her a lot."

After the building was evacuated, UB police began conducting a room-by-room search of the

library, said Joseph A. Brennan, associate vice president for university communications.

"As I understand it, the report was the sight of a person walking into the library who may

have a gun," Brennan said during a briefing on campus.

Schoenle later explained that it was unclear whether the person even entered the library at

all or whether he was going in or out of the building.

He said police canvassed the five-floor building four separate times but didn't find

anything suspicious.

By 7:45 p.m., the report of a gunman remained unconfirmed, and police reopened the area of

the campus where maximum security was imposed. Meanwhile, Tuesday evening's classes had

already been canceled as a precaution, university officials said.

Today's classes were expected to resume on schedule, officials said late Tuesday.

Police armed with rifles stationed themselves around Lockwood Library and warned those in

the immediate area to get inside, though many students on campus initially were not aware of

what was happening.

UB senior Ethan Lam was on the second floor of Lockwood at about 4:30 when someone came by

telling everyone to get out of the building. The evacuation was conducted calmly, he said.

"At the time, we didn't realize what was going on," Lam said. "It seems so serious now."

All the commotion did attract some interested student onlookers, however.

"I was watching the Olympics, and then it ended, and they came on TV saying, "breaking news

on the North Campus,'" said Richard Kennedy, a freshman aerospace engineering major from

Schenectady who lives on campus. "So we came down here."

Kennedy and fellow freshman Steven Brown of Churchville arrived in time to watch from

windows outside Lockwood Library as police searched the building.

"They weren't playing games when they got up there," Kennedy said.

Brown, who is studying chemical engineering, added: "The officer just came right around the

corner with the gun right up to his eye. He came up straight behind the bookcases and turned

with the gun. They were very technical about it."

Still, other students expressed concern over how the incident was managed.

Stephen Marth, the editor of the Spectrum student newspaper, told The Buffalo News that he

"was disappointed" in the way the situation was handled.

"I feel like the response should have been a lot quicker than it was," Marth said.

"Students were walking around like there was nothing wrong. No one had an idea what to do.

"The urgency eventually came, but it took awhile."

Schoenle said there was never a "threat to anyone" during the incident and he called the

situation "a real test of our emergency system." He also encouraged anyone who sees anything

suspicious on campus to notify police immediately.

"I thought it worked out real well," he said. "If we had an active shooter, we would have

acted totally differently."

University officials said they need to take reports like Tuesday's seriously, especially in

a time when fatal shootings have occurred on college campuses. In 2007, a mass shooting at

Virginia Tech left 32 dead. Last Friday, three faculty members at the University of Alabama in

Huntsville were slain by a fellow faculty member.

In April 2008, a tag game between students using toy guns sent Alfred University into a

two-hour, campuswide lockdown.

UB shifted police from the South Campus to the North Campus in response to the alert, and

Buffalo police provided backup assistance by covering security on the city campus.

News Staff Reporters Stephen T. Watson and Lou Michel contributed to this report.

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