A student triggered a scare on a New Jersey college campus Wednesday after someone spotted him with a gun, police say.
Police said a woman saw the young man with a gun in the front seat of his car outside Brookdale Community College in Lincroft. She followed him on campus, where she spotted him getting out of his car. That’s when she called police.
It turns out the gun was a pellet gun, but that wasn’t discovered until after the campus went into lockdown and police scoured the campus for the man.
During the lockdown, Rick Carr, a professor at the college, said he got as many people as he could and told them to get in his classroom.
“I don’t want to say I’m scared all the time, but there are reasons to be concerned,” Carr said.
Officers surrounded the young man's station wagon and, with the help of students, eventually located him in a classroom. He was searched and that’s when the pellet gun was found.
Monmouth County Chief of Detectives Michael Pasterchick said that the man did not have the gun on him while in the classroom.
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“They brought him out and he eventually denied it, but eventually did admit that he had a gun in his car, which was a BB gun,” Pasterchick said.
The man was taken into custody, the lockdown was lifted and a sigh of relief was felt across campus.
It wasn’t clear Wednesday what charges the man may face, but in New Jersey pellet guns are subject to all state laws that apply to handguns, meaning people need a permit to carry them.
“In today’s day and age of terrorism, sure there’s a lot wrong with it, you can’t be showing guns or flashing guns in cars," Pasterchick said.
