 "Photo: NICOLE KARAMICHAEL / The Daily Reveille")
To see a slideshow of the incident, click here.
A University student was apprehended this morning after allegedly causing a disturbance in the Quad involving a blue Mercedes, a gasoline can and other assorted items.
The LSU Police Department confirmed Storm Erie was taken into custody in the Design Building shortly after officers responded to calls describing "an illegally parked car with a gas can on the top" in the Quad, according to Sgt. Kevin Scott, LSUPD Spokesman.
Scott said officers first received a call about Erie's illegally parked blue Mercedes at 9:05 a.m. He said LSUPD was on the scene by 9:08 a.m.
Multiple witnesses said it took LSUPD more than 20 minutes to arrive on the scene. Scott said this report is a discrepancy and said LSUPD phone records show a 3 minute response time.
Scott said LSUPD was simply responding to reports of an illegally parked car and said officers didn't know Erie was acting irrationally or dumping assorted items — including bongo drums, a spade, a box of checkers, a set of blueprints and about 10 other items— onto the Quad.
Scott said there were no signs of drugs in the vehicle or on Erie's person when he was apprehended.
Erie had a gas can with him, but Scott said there was very little gas in the can when they discovered it. He said there was no sign the gasoline had been used for anything dangerous.
Witnesses said Erie fled the scene with his dog before police arrived.
Students said Erie was speaking and acting irrationally on the scene.
"He had music playing, but he wasn't screaming at anybody or threatening anyone," said Rebecca Giller, animal sciences graduate student. "He wasn't saying anything."
Other students were more concerned about their safety.
"I really though he was going to start shooting or something," said Kandice Tyler, psychology junior, who witnessed the suspect drive his car into the quad.
Though there were some reports from media sources and second-hand witnesses about possible threats of violence, Scott said officers found no comments from witnesses about any dangerous activity.
Scott said officers are investigating those possible threats, however, to see if he posed any threat to campus before being apprehended.
Scott said no emergency text messages were sent because initial reports of the event did not present "an immediate response from the community or on an immediate threat to life."
Scott said Erie was taken into custody and "transported voluntarily by Baton Rouge EMS" for medical review.
All the items were returned to the vehicle before it was towed from the Quad.
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Contact The Daily Reveille at news@lsureveille.com
Expect anything.And really, guns? are we SO LAZY that we cant even walk up to someone to stab them anymore? We need to be able to kill from our couch!
We'll cut the Reveille some slack on that one...And to "Anonymous" who is saying the Reveille released private information... you're just wrong. This students made a VERY public display that created a good bit of concern on campus. Students deserve to know what happened in this situation, and police only released information (or what's mentioned in this article) that's public record to anyone, not just journalist. And what private information was released anyway? His name? People pieced that one together pretty quickly when you're a red-head with dreadlocks.