WMU students upset they weren't notified of fatal shooting near campus

By Madison Bennett | MLive

KALAMAZOO, MI - Some Western Michigan University students are upset they did not get an alert from the university after a student was shot and killed Thursday night near campus.

At about 10:30 p.m. Dec. 8, Kalamazoo and WMU public safety officers responded to report that a man had been shot at SoHo Apartments. A 20-year-old WMU student, whose name has not yet been released, was found dead in an apartment. Two suspects fled and remain at large.

The apartment complex at 760 S. Howard St. is across the street from Western's main campus.

"This is the second incident where the administration has failed to protect students during a serious incident," Josh Howell, a senior at WMU, said Friday.

After a shooting spree at three locations in and near Kalamazoo  -- Jason Dalton is charged with killing six people and injuring two on Feb. 20 -- students slammed the university for not sending out a safety alert.

President John Dunn said in a letter to the campus community that WMU should have issued an alert about the mass shooting and the university held a forum during which officials said they would "make changes" and work to enhance communication in emergency situations.

"This is a contained incident so you can't compare it exactly to the Dalton incident, however, I think it's important to question, you know, where is the effective communication?" senior at WMU, Matthew Derrick said of Thursday's shooting.

Cheryl Roland, executive director of university relations, said Friday that WMU has gotten questions as to why the university did not send out an alert Thursday night. 

"I think a lot of people might think it's a way of informing the community something has happened," she said. "It's really more designed to warn of an imminent threat or danger."

WMU Alerts are messages sent out via phone call or text message to those who subscribe and cover only incidents that happen directly on Western's campus, Roland said. In addition to the WMU Alerts, due to changes to U.S. Department of Education regulations the university has added a mass email to distribute a message to anyone with a university email address, regardless if they are signed up for the alerts or not, she said.

While Thursday night's incident took place very close, it was not on campus.

"Our public safety officers and our Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety officers were able to determine immediately there was not an ongoing threat in that area," Roland said.

To Howell, having a homicide across the street from campus and no one in custody is cause to issue an alert.

"If they (the suspects) still aren't caught and we have no idea what to watch out for and still no updates that's terrible," Howell said. 

This post originally appeared Dec. 9, 2016 on MLive.com.