Students recall moments after receiving UTC potential shooter alert

First responders could be seen escorting a swarm of students away from the campus library, where responders were called, and toward sidewalks across from campus halls, where they crowded together and waited for answers.

Many students could be seen making calls to their loved ones, reassuring them and telling them they’re safe.

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Derrick Gardner, a junior at UTC, says he was about to walk inside the university’s library when police emerged and began redirecting students away from the area, telling them a shooter might be on campus. Gardner says he and a group of students went to the food court instead.

“I started going around warning people, ‘there’s a shooter. There’s a shooter,” he recalls.

Despite the p