“We immediately activated our emergency operation center that evening,” MSU Police and Public Safety Communications Manager Dana Whyte said. “The call came in at 8:18 p.m., which was when the first 911 call came into Ingham County dispatch.” 

Whyte said the information coming in was dispatched through the county and every other law enforcement agency in Ingham County.

“Our officers immediately responded to Berkey and the Union and our first emergency alert was sent out at 8:30 p.m.” Whyte said.

The MSU alert was sent out 12 minutes after reports of the first shots came in. Students, faculty and staff are automatically subscribed to MSU alerts with their MSU emails, but in order to receive alerts via a phone call or text message, people have to log into the system on alert.msu.edu and change their preferences.

Whyte said MSUPD was providing updates through its social media pages.

“I personally was the one handling the pages," Whyte said. "We put out 12 updates during that time that initial call went out until the shelter-in-place was lifted.”

Press conferences were held at 11 p.m., 12:30 a.m. and 1:30 a.m.

“At all of these conferences, we reiterated that we are the ones who you should be going to for information," Whyte said. "The information that is on the police scanner is not verified and it is coming in quickly.” 

MSU deputy spokesperson Dan Olsen said in the immediate minutes and extended hours following the first report of a shooting, the university’s focus was to provide factual and transparent information in a way that reached the most individuals with the most accurate and important updates.

“Those methods were through traditional media, being reporters and news outlet organizations, as well as social media and the msu.edu main website," Olsen said. "The university also worked quickly to stand up the Emergency Alert banner on our homepage at msu.edu, which you still see active today. We provided similar updates to which MSU police were providing on that page, as well.” 

Olsen said anyone visiting the university’s main website, or any websites that are part of MSU properties, would see that emergency alert.

That night, a photo of three men wearing masks and holding long rifles circulated on social media. That photo caused panic and further calls of potential suspects around campus. Whyte said those were first responders.

Whyte said she herself had also been listening to the police scanner and realized that there was a lot of fear and misinformation being spread rapidly.

For example, the bomb threat that was announced at Owen Hall was unfounded and at that time the suspect was being located, Whyte said.

“We were just trying to combat as much misinformation as possible,” Whyte said. 

Olsen addressed another location of concern that was mentioned multiple times in the police scanner: the IM East Building. People believed that shots had been fired inside.

“Two of the 12 updates were about that incident in particular and in quick succession articulated that that was not accurate information,” Olsen said.