'Get inside, get inside!' Rose State College students, police spurred to action in shooting

MIDWEST CITY — A shooting that left one person dead and one in police custody created panic at Rose State College with students and faculty rushing into lockdown across campus Monday afternoon.

The shooting, believed by Midwest City police to have been connected to a domestic situation, took place near the humanities building on campus, which sits just north of Interstate 40 in Midwest City.

Chief Sid Porter, of the Midwest City Police Department, said calls came in shortly before 12:30 p.m. Monday that a person had been shot on campus. Rose State campus security is contracted to the department, and the officers on duty responded immediately, Porter said.

More: Midwest City police: One dead, one in custody after shooting at Rose State College

"[Officers] confronted a subject with a gun, they ordered him to drop the gun, which he did, and they took him into custody," Porter said. "The suspect and the victim are acquainted through a domestic situation."

Monday's shooting occurred as schools and universities across the nation continue to reckon with gun violence and threats. The University of Oklahoma was placed on lockdown April 7 when swatting calls from outside of the United States were made saying there was an active shooter on campus. After sweeping the library, no threat was found. Schools in multiple other states experienced similar situations — just the week before the OU call, a shooter killed three children and three adults at a private school in Nashville, Tennessee.

Rose State held an active shooter drill a few weeks ago, Porter said.

Students react and move to keep one another safe

"The fast response of everybody getting here and the phone call just pinpointed just right to where we needed to be at," Porter said.

One of those phone calls came from 19-year-old Kevin McCormack, whom police interviewed extensively at the scene Monday.

McCormack, who along with his friend witnessed the shooting on the way to class, said his goal was to get others inside to safety.

"We watch one guy go down as another irate man — he was saying something, but we couldn't quite understand what he was saying — and a female was trying to grab him and just calm him down," McCormack said. "It was about eight shots we heard while we were running inside buildings calling to people 'Get inside, get inside!'"

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Neither the suspect nor the victim, who died at the scene, has been identified by police. Porter did say both the suspect and the victim were men.

McCormack said he felt "emotional collapse" kick in as he went into autopilot, knowing he needed to call 911. He attributes his reaction to training in Boy Scouts. McCormack said that by the time he and his friend were ushering people into classrooms, the college was sending out alerts to students and police were arriving.

"They were fast. We were inside of the room and then suddenly got the alert, and this is like a two-minute timer," he said. "It was a ridiculously fast thing, so I don't know if it was like a bank panic button, but it was effective. I have a lot of faith in Rose."

Midwest City and Del City police, along with Oklahoma Highway Patrol and the Oklahoma County sheriff's office, remained on site Monday afternoon conducting a full sweep of the campus before giving the all clear for students, faculty and staff to go home. Porter said this was done to provide "peace of mind" to those waiting in lockdown.

More: Thousands participate in national school walkout after Nashville shooting, urge gun control

Rose State College responds to shooting

Once buildings were searched, the college sent out an all-clear alert and canceled the remainder of the day's classes, as well as those scheduled for Tuesday.

"Our top priority at this time is the well-being of our students, faculty and staff.

We understand that this event has been deeply distressing for our community, and we are currently working to coordinate counseling services for those in need. We will be alerting our students, faculty and staff as soon as these services become available," the college said in a statement Monday afternoon.

Rose State conducts active shooter drills on a regular basis. Porter said everyone on campus followed the safety precautions well on Monday.

"I just think they did a fantastic job of listening to the school and everybody staying down and not panicking because we didn't know what was going on," Porter said. "Thank the Lord, it was tragic, but it stopped right there and no one else was hurt."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: During Rose State College shooting, students jumped into action