LOUISVILLE, Ky. (LEX 18/WAVE) — A student at the University of Louisville has been removed from campus and is facing consequences after firing a gun inside a UofL campus apartment this past weekend.
WAVE reported that Beth Boehm, the executive vice president and university provost at UofL, sent out a letter that stated a student fired a gun off inside a dorm at the Cardinal Towne student apartment complex. The bullet had gone through the ceiling and into the closet of another apartment.
According to WAVE, no one was injured during the incident.
"I didn't realize what it was at first, and then came the banging on my door," said the student whose apartment was shot into.
That student and her roommate, who both did not want to be identified, said that their neighbor lied about what the sound was.
"He said, 'I'm the tenant below you,' and he said, 'I had a bike explosion or a tire explosion,'" she told WAVE. "It immediately freaked me out. Immediately."
Michael Mardis, UofL's dean, talked about the incident publicly on Tuesday morning and called it accidental. The student claimed to be cleaning his gun when it went off, according to WAVE.
UofL took the student's gun and made him leave his campus housing. UofL's weapon policy states the following:
"[Firearms] are prohibited on any property owned, leased, operated or controlled by the university."
According to Mardis, because of this policy, the student violated the code of student conduct.
The two women whose apartment was shot into told WAVE that officials with UofL told them that the student had more than just the one gun in his apartment.
"We also got to the meeting Monday and learned there were multiple weapons," one of the women said. "They confiscated six guns from his apartment."
As of Wednesday morning, no criminal charges have been filed against the student.
The university's student body was notified of the incident from a university-wide email. Boehm told WAVE that the UofL's emergency messaging system was not used when the incident happened due to police and campus housing responding so quickly.
The statement from the university-wide email said that "safety is truly our top priority," but the women from the apartment above don't believe this fully.
"It's terrifying to me, especially because not only did somebody bring multiple guns on campus," said the woman. "We were not told. The residents of Card Towne were not told of this incident, and I no longer feel safe on this campus, and that upsets me."
