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Suicidal gunman causes scare at university

Healthcare Security Weekly, October 1, 2007

Students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison returned to classes September 26 as police continued to search for a 19-year-old man who created a campus scare the night before when he claimed to have a gun and said he wanted to be killed by a police officer.

The incident began when a crisis center got a call about a suicidal person on top of the university hospital's parking ramp, reported WIBW-TV. The university cancelled night classes at the west end of the campus near the hospital, as well as a soccer game, and police urged students to stay inside. The University of Wisconsin Hospital also discouraged visitors.

Police received two calls claiming shots had been fired near the hospital and a bomb threat made there. Authorities believe those were hoaxes by the apparently suicidal man, who has a history of mental illness and had been serving a work-release jail term for armed robbery. The university sent three mass e-mails to students, faculty, and staff alerting them about the search.

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