AU ALERT should reach full potential on campus

I read your article today in the Plainsman, regarding the AU alert and wanted to give a comment on my view of the situation.

After the mishap in Montgomery, when police wholeheartedly believed that Desmonte Leonard was in the house and were found to be incorrect on Leonard's actual whereabouts, the police stated that the next logical place for him to hide was in Auburn.

Leonard was familiar with the area and had a number of contacts in Auburn.

Some of those contacts, which he could have potentially reached out to, could have been students.

There were many students at the party when the shooting occurred.

Maybe there was somebody else who was the intended target in the shooting.

At 22 years old, he could have easily blended in with the student population and went after somebody on campus.

Many students don't follow the news, especially when they're busy with class assignments.

How many knew he wasn't caught in Montgomery and that a likely place for him to head was back to Auburn?

Why not inform the students and have how many thousands more on the lookout for him?

I feel there should have been an AU ALERT sent out with a picture of Leonard and information on what to do if he was spotted.

It could have been a student that was the first to spot Leonard or provide information of his location to the police.

I feel this is the second time in the passed two years that AU alert was not used to its full potential when a dangerous situation arose.

The first being when the suspected man, (I think he had a weapon, but I'm not sure), was spotted on campus and then was later seen fleeing that scene.

An email was sent out, but by that time the crises had subsided.

I understand trying not to raise panic in the students, but in these two cases it could have been someone the Auburn family that was harmed for trying to hinder them from getting away.

A student may have gotten assaulted when they wouldn't willingly give up their car to somebody trying to evade the police.

The AU ALERT should notify people of the potential dangers on campus as well as the surrounding area since a great number of the AU Alert recipients don't live on campus.

The AU ALERT's number one priority should be for keeping the Auburn family safe.

Steven Kessler