Police searched and cleared the Apache Boulevard parking structure on the Tempe campus Friday afternoon after receiving an anonymous call that a person was pointing a gun at the ASU Police Department.
The call came in at 3:01 p.m. and the department immediately blocked off the structure and stopped traffic for about an hour, Assistant ASU Police Chief Jay Spradling said.
“We did a thorough car-to-car search of the parking structure,” he said, and found no threats. “We believe it was a prank but obviously we have to take it seriously.”
ASU police declared the situation all clear at 4:21 p.m.
The structure has security cameras at the entrances and exits but none anywhere else in the structure, ASU Police spokesman Cmdr. Jim Hardina said.
ASU utilized its text-messaging alert system to notify students to stay away from the area and again to indicate the area had reopened. ASU President Michael Crow sent emergency e-mails.
The incident happened just two days after a new law went into effect that allows guns to be kept in cars on campus, as well as on other public and private properties.
Detectives are continuing to investigate who made the call, Hardina said.
