A white sedan fired shots at a vehicle carrying Belmont students on 15th Avenue between Wedgewood and Acklen avenues shortly after 8:30 Tuesday night, according to a Campus Security alert.
No students were injured, according to the alert.
The car was reported to have raced away from campus, headed toward 12th Avenue South.
Around 8:30 p.m., student Shannon Ogden reported hearing gunshots and tires screeching from her biology class on the third floor of the JAAC.
“Our professor turned the lights off and we all got still because they were very obviously gunshots, and they were obviously very close,” Ogden said.
“Our professor kept asking, ‘Is anyone getting a Belmont alert, is anyone getting any updates?’
“We didn’t.”
About an hour later, around 9:30 p.m., Belmont Campus Security sent out email and text alerts to students, notifying them of the incident.
“Security received a report shortly before 9pm that someone in a vehicle on 15th Ave between Acklen and Wedgewood fired shots at another vehicle,” the report read.
“The suspect vehicle then left, turning right onto Wedgewood away from campus. There are no known injuries and no threat to the campus.”
Update 9/13/17, 12:04 a.m.:
Student Madison Bounds was on a conference call on the third floor of the JAAC when she witnessed the incident.
“I was sitting at one of the tables that sits up against the window over 15th and heard a really loud bang. I looked out the window and I saw two stopped cars, and at first I thought it was a car accident because it was so loud.”
Bounds reported that she texted her roommate at 8:43 p.m., immediately after the incident, telling her what she had just witnessed.
She called Belmont Security’s non emergency line at 8:48 p.m..
Belmont Security told Bounds they were already aware of the incident.
Metro Police arrived while Bounds was still on the phone with Belmont security.
“When I went down there, there were Metro Police cars and no Belmont police cars. Both of the cars involved were gone, there was just a bunch of broken glass in one spot but that was the only thing that really remained,” Bounds said.
Bounds was frightened, and said it was frustrating to not receive an alert from Campus Security until nearly an hour later.
“I don’t know if they knew where the car was with the shooter in it, but I thought they could have easily returned to our campus. There were many students outside when I left that I worried could have been injured.”
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
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This update written by Sara Scannell.