WAVE 3 TV Louisville, KY | 5 being questioned after fights trigger WKU campus alert

5 being questioned after fights trigger WKU campus alert

By Janelle MacDonald - bio | email
Posted by Charles Gazaway - email

BOWLING GREEN, KY (WAVE) - It was a scary 2 1/2 hours for students at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green Wednesday. At 1:30 p.m. Eastern time, a campus alert was issued and the university was placed on lockdown. WAVE 3's Janelle MacDonald reports that as it turned out, it all boiled down to a series of fights.

Two of the fights happened on campus, one on South Campus where Bowling Green Community College is located and the other in the vicinity of Pearce-Ford Tower, a student dorm on the main campus.

While at least one of the 911 calls placed to Bowling Green Police indicated that there was a gun involved and maybe shots fired, WKU officials say that was not the case.

One person was injured. Authorities say a man was hurt trying to break up one of the fights. He was treated at a hospital and released.

Campus officials say that with the state of the country and incidents on other college campuses, the text message alerts to students were justified.

"This institution is committed to the safety of citizens and we would always rather do what is going to be in the best interest of those students," said Howard Bailey, WKU Dean of Students.

Five students were taken into custody and are being questioned as to their involvement in those two fights as well as a fight that happened Saturday night at a social gathering of a group. It is possible that fight led to Wednesday's fights.