At approximately 11:48 a.m., a 911 emergency call was made for a stabbing at The Edge apartment complex. One Caucasian male was reported to be stabbed and was taken to East Alabama Medical Center. The victim is in surgery, and his name and condition has not been released. According to Auburn Assistant Police Chief Tom Dawson, the incident appears to be between two roommates. The suspect is still at large, but police believe the suspect does not pose a threat to students or the campus area. Dawson advised everyone to remain cautious, and report any suspicious activity to the police department. The Auburn City Police Department can be reached at 501-3100. Continue to check The Plainsman Web site for further updates on this developing situation.
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April 16, 2008 - 2:20pm
What is the point in AU Alert?
Don't get me wrong, I think the AU Alert can be beneficial. But I thin, to date, it has not been. We find out too little information, or useless information, and we get it too late. What good did it do to tell the campus that their is a stabber on the loose? I don't think it did any at all. My girlfriend had three of her friends call or text to see if she was okay. She didn't answer one friend because she was on the phone with another... that friend panicked and worried about her and proceeded to call over and over again. This is the completely unrational reaction that a system like this will always cause. In a little more time non one is going to care at all when anything happens because we're going to keep hearing these messages and then we'll come to find out it had nothing to do with anyone or anything we know.
Police say they have a suspect and then they ask for our help. How can we be expected to help if you don't give us any information on this "suspect?"
When my girlfriend and I got back from lunch and went to my office, an older colleague of mine kicked on his paternal instincts and told my girlfriend to be careful because there is a stabber on the loose. Again, very unrational. This stabber isn't out on some stabbing spree or we would have heard of multiple victims. Even if he was, then it's more likely that by the time we heard about it he would have been stopped and captured, as it's pretty hard to go on a spree with a knife for any extended period of time. I guarantee that one of two things has happened here: this guy had a target in mind, either a specific object to obtain, or a specific person to hurt, either way, someone unfortunate fell victim to this stabber's attack. The stabber is done and is now trying to stay low on the RADAR and avoid capture. You're not going to get stabbed by him anytime soon. An alternate theory: two friends got in a mix up or someone made an awful mistake with a knife and needs to be more careful.
In any case, all the hysteria created over telling everyone on campus that this happened is not only unnecessary, but quite harmful. It can make people jump into panics only to eventually respond to a later incident with a lowered guard. By not giving us more information on the subject, this message is pointless and is likely to do more harm than good.
April 16, 2008 - 5:12pm
ITS FOR MORE THAN JUST YOU
au allert is for more than just you. even if you believe that it causes undo pandamonium you have to think about the many things that it does good. You are able to add your parents number on it and it lets them know if something has happened on campus. I guess sometimes it takes something serious or something to personally affect your life to see how something like this is blessing regaudless of the minor problems it makes. I know for a fact that I am glad i have it because it keeps me on alert when there is something happening in the community that I should know about because I am not glued to my tv or I am not glued to my email. It also lets my parents know so they are not left out in the dark. Take the Virginia Tech incident so many parents were not able to be contacted at first and they were upset that they were not told things until late. Sometimes the situation does not leave you time to stop call mom and dad scream "HELP" then get back to what ever the situation is. I think it is really naive for someone to say that something that could potentially save lives , maybe not today, but possibly in the future, is worthless and more of a pain. Thanks Have a great day!!April 18, 2008 - 10:51pm
Job Well Done.
I have to give the AU Administration a pat on the back and a "job well done" for the AU Alert system. It worked here precisely as it was setup. People were notified, made more cautious, and able to check on their friends and family. Regardless of whether it turned out to be a "false alarm", the system worked -- there was a possible imminent danger to people on campus and people were notified.Now, we must tweak the system. Let's get out the unneeded weather alerts -- thank-you SGA for working on this. Also, let's determine a way to get more specifics out faster. Once I received the text message, I immediately went to the Auburn homepage to get more details. There were none for a sufficient amount of time to make me start worrying. In my humble opinion (yet again), the Auburn homepage should be the first thing changed to give us information.
Let's get to work. We can't secure this campus, but we can make it safer.