The Baltimore Sun | WBAL-TV
A student from the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism working in a Maryland school was mistaken for a gunman because he carried a tripod, Liz Bowie, Jessica Anderson and Erica L. Green report.
Baltimore police Commissioner Anthony W. Batts said that about 9 a.m. Thursday, school police received a report of an armed person on the KIPP school grounds in Northwest Baltimore. He said he is glad the students made the report.
“They saw something they misconstrued or thought was something of danger. They did the right thing: They reported it and we responded to it. And I don’t think anything has gone wrong here. I think everything has gone very well,” Batts said.
What students had seen was entirely innocent. Two University of Maryland, College Park journalism students had brought a tripod to the KIPP campus to record video for a class. They had permission from both the school and the school system to be on campus, according to Lucy Dalglish, dean of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at College Park. City police confirmed that a man with a tripod was mistaken for a gunman.
The students were at the school “to film a project for their videography class, and it appears that they may have inadvertently started the whole situation,” WBAL-TV reports.
Kipp Academy in Baltimore on lockdown parents say police told them man might be inside with gun. pic.twitter.com/jXhSBpAZLs
— Lowell Melser (@MelserWBAL) April 3, 2014
Hard to believe a tripod may have caused this. Police won't say who it was…
— Lowell Melser (@MelserWBAL) April 3, 2014
Comments