ISU Police Chief speaks about Sunday morning shooting

NORMAL, Ill. – In the early morning hours of March 22, a shooting occurred in the 700 block of Franklin Street, less than a quarter-mile from Illinois State University’s campus.

Illinois State University Police Chief Aaron Woodruff spoke about the incident. 

“At some point, Normal Police heard some shots ringing out. We weren’t exactly sure where, but then there was some confusion about where the shooting had taken place, so Normal Police responded, and then when they arrived on the scene, the victims ultimately were already mostly gone,” Woodruff said.

According to Woodruff, this occurred after multiple parties had been broken up earlier in the day, leading to the gathering on Franklin Street.

“My understanding is, they [Normal Police] provided aid to the two victims that they found in the area and got them to the hospital,” Woodruff said. “I know Normal Fire Department did the transport for them. The other the other four victims were not on the scene when normal police arrived, and they, from my understanding self reported to the hospital.”

Although six people were injured in the shooting, Illinois State University students and staff were not immediately notified because, according to Woodruff, there was no imminent threat to campus safety.

“Our supervisor was also in the area, responded and gathered the information based on the totality of the circumstances,” Woodruff said. “Everything that he was gathering did not feel there was an imminent threat to the campus community for an emergency alert. However, we did end up issuing what’s referred to as a community update after the fact.”

The statement put out by the University police listed several reasons for the lack of notice to the community. These consisted of: type of incident, location, credibility, clarity of information and timeliness.

Woodruff clarified what some of this language meant.

“Now, an emergency alert is only one way in which we communicate with the campus, and so by imminent situation, it means, is there something right now that we need people to take action,” Woodruff said. “In this particular case, by the time the officers got there, there was no shooting taking place; that had already taken place. There was nobody, really, very few people around, and there wasn’t a whole lot of information to base on what had occurred.”

Another reason stated was location, referring to the fact that the incident occurred off of ISU’s campus. This is despite similar instances occurring off campus in the last two years: The Circle K gas station incident and the apartment incident.

“Being off campus in and of itself isn’t the deciding factor, but it is a factor,” said Woodruff. “For example, the same supervisor who issued the emergency alert a couple of weeks ago on February 14, that too occurred off campus, but he indicated that he believed the individuals were running towards campus, so the emergency alert would go off again. This time, he did not feel that there was an imminent threat to the campus community, and so I have to trust the judgment of my supervisors.”

When asked if there were plans for a more formal plan of action in the future, Woodruff mentioned that incidents would be handled on a case-by-case basis.

“It’s still always going to be a judgment call at the time. Like I said, it’s not cut and dry,” Woodruff said. 

The situation is currently ongoing as the case is still under investigation.

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