By Troy Wolverton
Mercury News
San Jose City College went into lockdown Tuesday evening after reports of a gunman on campus.
Officials canceled classes and were evacuating most of the campus, said Dr. Rita Cepeda, chancellor of the San Jose/Evergreen Community College District. But the Technology Center and Science Complex buildings on campus remained on lockdown. Police were conducting a room-by-room, floor-by-floor search of both buildings looking for the gunman, Cepeda said.
An unconfirmed report of a gunman on campus, came in about 4:30 p.m., San Jose Police Officer Albert Morales said in a news release. Several people called the city’s “911” call center to report they were told to lockdown because there was a gunman on school campus, he said.
The gunman was reportedly in the Technology building, said Cepeda. That building is near the Science building.
Cepeda said she didn’t know how many classes were being held in those buildings or how many students or teachers were within them.
As of 6 p.m., there had been no reports of anyone injured or threatened and no gunman or gun had been found. Morales also said police had not been in contact with anyone who confirmed seeing a man or a gun.
Percy Carr, the longtime coach of City College’s basketball team, said he spent the lockdown in the gym with 16 other people, including all the players on the team. The group wasn’t cleared to evacuate until around 6:40 p.m., after about an hour and half in lockdown.
The order to go into lockdown was initially unsettling to Carr and the team. “In light of all the events that happened (recently), nobody was at ease about what was going on here,” he said. “We heard all the helicopters and saw all the red lights.” But after a 30 minutes or so in lockdown, people started to relax, he said. “We felt safe,” he said.