Monday morning University of Minnesota students were jarred awake by a combination of phone calls, texts, and emails. The university safety service had sent out messages regarding a situation that was developing at the Graduate Hotel near the heart of the East Bank campus.
The first set of messages reported that the hotel was experiencing a "public safety situation" and that nearby roads and facilities, such as the Wellness and Recreational Center nearby, had been closed for the day. Of course, it didn't take long for students and staff to start pouring into campus, looking to start their day, only to be met with streets barricaded with police vehicles, extra patrolmen walking around, and helicopters flying overhead.
As the day went on, we all collectively came to understand the situation that was developing in University Village just down the street from most of our classes. Many of us followed the Fox News report on the event as it was unfolding. At the time, what was known was that police were talking to a man who was holed up in his hotel room with two other people. It was not specified whether or not this man was armed or not.
Several guests were evacuated from the hotel to make room for police operations, and a perimeter was created to keep students and other bystanders from interfering with police equipment. Fox news also goes on to say that police were not calling this a hostage situation.
Later on in the night, sources like MPR News and WHEC News went on to give us more detail about the situation. The man being confronted by police in his hotel room has a warrant from out of Arizona for a "nonviolent white-crime." It was also revealed by police that there was only one other person in the room with the man, and not two like previously reported.
21 hours into the stand-off with police, the person who was in the room with the suspect was finally released into police custody. Though this shows that there's progress being made, the stand-off is still underway as I write this. Police say they want to resolve this situation as peacefully as possible.
It's incredible that an event of this magnitude and intensity seems to have such little effect on the operations of the university. Students went about their day as though it was another groggy Monday, with the exception that there were some streets blocked off, resulting in some people having to find different routes to classes. It goes to show that the University of Minnesota Police Department is sharply proficient at what they do and that we're all in good hands here in the Twin Cities.
