Collegiate Times

A masked college student carrying a rifle in a black trash bag was arrested last Wednesday at St. John's University.

The situation occurred at approximately 2:30 p.m. after students had reported the existence of a suspicious person to the University's Public Safety Office.

The individual was quickly apprehended, in part due to the changes in campus security in response to Tech's April 16 shootings.

In September, St. John's put into effect its "Text Messaging System" which was established to alert the campus of emergencies. Upon beginning this program, the university stated, "in light of the tragedy at Virginia Tech, St. John's revisited its procedures and determined that alerting our campus community to an emergency situation as soon as possible is of utmost importance."

Omesh Hiraman, 22, was arraigned on Friday on weapons possession charges. After purchasing the $180 rifle legally in upstate New York, Hiraman allegedly returned to New York City and failed to obtain a possession permit. If convicted of those crimes he could face up to a year in jail.

It is unknown why Hiraman allegedly brought the weapon to the Queens, New York campus; however, his attorney, Anthony Collelouri, told New York Times that because of his schizophrenia he felt as if he needed the gun and mask for protection. Collelouri said Hiraman ''was wearing a mask so that whatever was going to hurt him could not find him."

Whatever the reason, the emergency response by the university was described as a "national model" by NYPD Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.

Traffic cameras have also shown that Hiraman arrived on campus at 2:20 p.m.

A minute later, at 2:21 p.m., the public safety office received calls from students, including Christopher Benson, 21, reporting seeing a suspicious person wearing a rubber Halloween mask and carrying a plastic bag with what appeared to be the barrel of a gun sticking out of it outside an academic building.

At 2:30 p.m., unarmed University Public Safety officer Dan Boylan and Benson subdued and disarmed Hiraman after a brief struggle.

Since the events of last week, the number of students subscribing to the system has increased from 2,100 to 8,282 out of the 20,000 students enrolled at St. John's.

Rev. Donald J. Harrington, president of St. John's University, expressed his relief in a statement released by the university.

"I am grateful that the plan we had in place for emergency situations worked, and worked well," said Harrington in the release. "I'm also grateful for the vigilance of our students who alerted us to the problem, our Public Safety Office's quick response and the NYPD, who arrived on campus only minutes after a 911 call to assume full responsibility for the safety of our campus."