There is a lot of high tension and emotions running through the streets and hallways of Texas Tech University this week. This comes after a Texas Tech police officer was shot point blank and killed Monday evening.

Before you read on I would like to say that all information shared in this article come from credible news sources. That being said the speculation I am presenting is all my thoughts and opinions. I am not lying to get attention or trying to push my political agenda in the midst of a tragedy.

Around the hour of 8 p.m., campus police officials arrested 19-year-old Texas Tech freshman, Hollis Daniels III for possession of drugs and paraphernalia in his dorm room. Several officers were responding to erratic behavior complaints about Daniels and conducted a welfare check, which is how they found the drugs.

Daniels was taken to the TTU PD headquarters, located off of 4^th street next to the Marsha Sharp freeway. During questioning, a Corporal with TTU PD stepped out of the room to a nearby office, leaving Daniels alone with his arresting officer, Officer Floyd East, Jr., according to his release arrest warrant.

The Corporal heard a loud bang and returned to the room he had just left to find the Officer East in the room mortally wounded and the suspect nowhere in sight.

Reports say that Daniels had a gun on him and did not use the police officers. At 8:23 p.m., a Texas Tech emergency alert was issued campus-wide declaring a lockdown.

After an hour, police officials were able to find Daniels close in the area north of Jones AT&T stadium where police tackled him to the ground. PD found a .45 caliber gun and the body cam of Officer East in Daniels possession.

He has since been booked into the Lubbock County jail with capital murder charges and a $5 million bond.

During the campus-wide lockdown, Tech and Lubbock police, as well as a SWAT unit, surrounded the Talkington residence hall. Talkington is where Daniels lived and was arrested. This lead official to believe he might return to that spot.

Being a student and getting the message of a possible active shooter on campus, is scary enough, but I was one of the unfortunate students to live in the Talkington residence hall.

However, the interaction I had before the lockdown was what has been giving me chills all week.

At 6:20 p.m., I was working on a school project in my room, when I decided to go downstairs and walk next door to the dining hall for some food. When I arrived downstairs, I noticed a young woman and a police officer walk into the Talkington hall doors while I was walking out. This seemed peculiar, but nothing that concerned me, because there could’ve been a variety of reasons a police officer would enter a college dorm.

After spending approximately 35 minutes waiting for my food. Once I got my meal and drinks for my girlfriend and myself. I proceeded back to Talkington.

While walking toward the lobby of Talkington, I saw something that will stay embedded in my mind for a long time. I witnessed a police officer walking a handcuffed man through the lobby to the police vehicle outside of the Talkington residence hall.

I assumed this was just another dumb kid who wanted to smoke weed in their room and got caught by the police. Little did I know whom I had just seen and what events were about to transpire.

After walking back up to my dorm room, I told my girlfriend her about what I had seen. She thought it was peculiar but didn’t think anything of it as I did as well. At this point, it had to have been around 8-8:15 p.m.

Shortly after returning to my dorm, I received a text message informing me and the rest of the student body of a shooting. At that moment my friend was on her way to Talkington to study with my girlfriend and me. She texted me that she had arrived and I went downstairs to get her.

Downstairs, I was surprised to see several police vehicles outside the main entrance of my dorm. As I met my friend in the lobby, a police officer tells her to leave the area immediately and I was instructed by a heavily armed law enforcement officers to “Go back to my room right now.”

At first, my girlfriend and I were just worried about making sure my room door was locked and barricaded and that we were away from any windows. The TTU Alerts didn’t necessarily say there was an active shooter situation, but we wanted to be prepared for the worst.

I was following up on all the up-to-date information on Twitter, when I saw an official statement from Chris Cook, the Managing Director of Communications and Marketing for Texas Tech University.

His statement read:

At this point, I realized that the arrest I had seen earlier and the shooting were connected. It’s crazy, I was no more than 5 feet away from a soon to be killer.

After Daniels arrest and the lockdown was lifted, I began to picture all the events taking place from the moment I saw the police officer and Daniels in the lobby.

All I could think was “I saw this kid, minutes before he murdered someone point blank.” I still cannot recall seeing the officers face in my head and linking it to the photo that has been released identifying him. However, it is an eerie feeling knowing that I had witnessed what was a man’s last moments on this earth, and a 19-year-old boy’s last glimpse of innocence before he became a killer.

This feeling has been haunting me since the Monday night lockdown because I thought nothing of it at the time. I am sure the hall staff member and others in that area didn’t think that there would be a murder involving those two people in a few short minutes.

While this image continues to play over and over in my head, I cannot help but think of how sad and heartbroken I’m feeling. The Texas Tech community has all gathered together to mourn the loss of a good man doing his job.

I offer my condolences to the family affected by the loss of Officer East. I also offer my sympathy to the Daniels family, because I can only imagine what must be going through their minds right now.

Thank your local and campus officials for keeping you safe, and never take a moment on this planet for granted, because it can be stripped away from you in an instance.