The alleged gunman who caused the evacuation of hundreds of students at California State University Northridge‘s on-campus library yesterday is now in custody, according to university officials. The man who has been identified as philosophy student Gahren Moradian, 22, turned himself in to authorities Tuesday evening around 8p.m.
The drama unfolded when the Oviatt Library at Cal State Northridge was evacuated after reports Tuesday morning of a suspicious student milling around outside the library.
Campus officials released a picture of the “person of interest” and was described as a white male, roughly 5 feet 9 inches tall with short, dark, spiky hair. He wore a white t-shirt reading, “Human Rights Violations” on the back.
Witnesses said the young man appeared to be in some distress and when he was approached by both students and a campus employee, he reportedly told them he had a gun and intended to use it, although no weapon was actually seen.
At 10:27 a.m. officials were alerted of the situation, according to school spokeswoman Carmen Ramos Chandler. Hundreds of students were evacuated from the building and campus police conducted a floor-by-floor search. The Los Angeles Police Department was brought in to inspect the library with bomb-sniffing dogs. However, the rest of campus remained open and no classes were canceled.
A statement released by the library around 1:15p.m. saying, “Students, faculty and staff who feel uncomfortable may leave campus with proper notification to the faculty/supervisor.”
“An alert was sent out to the entire campus via text, via voice, via email, Facebook and Twitter, just to let them know about the situation with the library,” Chandler said. “The library was the only building affected.”
The library reopened Wednesday morning at 7:45 a.m. and Moradian is being charged with making criminal threats.