11/29/2012

Armed intruder reported on Florida Atlantic campus

By M. Alex Johnson, NBC News

NBC News

Helicopter video shows authorities searching for the gunman Thursday, Nov. 29, at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

Updated at 2:47 p.m. ET: Two Florida colleges were on lockdown Thursday as authorities sought an armed intruder reported to be at a university near Miami, the university said.

The intruder was believed to be inside the College of Arts and Letters complex on the campus of the Florida Atlantic University, which is in Boca Raton, about 60 miles north of Miami. No shots had been fired, and no injuries had been reported campus police said.

The Boca Raton campus of Palm Beach State College, which is near Florida Atlantic, was also on lockdown, security officials told NBC News.

Edgar Zuniga Jr. of NBC News and NBC Miami contributed to this report. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

Florida Atlantic said the suspect is a black male, about 5 feet, 10 inches tall, with a muscular build, wearing a white shirt and pants. The university told NBC Miami that he was believed to have robbed a student at gunpoint.

"The suspect placed a small handgun to the victim's head and then fled on foot after taking some of the victim's possessions," it said in an email statement.

The University Press, the college's student-run magazine, reported on its Twitter account that students in the complex could hear helicopters hovering overhead.

"I'm scared. FAU houses the crazies," Catherine O'Rourke, a senior design major who was hiding under a table in the Visual Arts building, told the publication.

Students, faculty and staff were told to shelter in place, and visitors were told to avoid the campus.

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