UVA-Wise lockdown lifted, student admits hoax - Beckley, Bluefield & Lewisburg News, Weather, Sports

UVA-Wise lockdown lifted, student admits hoax

Posted: Updated:
Credit: Ted Overbay Credit: Ted Overbay

Virginia State Police say the reports of a gunman on the UVA-Wise campus was a student hoax.

According to Virginia State Police Public Relations Director, Corinne Geller,  a UVA-Wise student called 911 to report he had seen a man on campus armed with a gun around 9 p.m. 

UVA-Wise Police, town of Wise Police, Wise County Sheriff's Office, town of Pound Police, and Virginia State Police immediately responded to the campus to begin a building-by-building search. 

The student who made the call confessed that it was all a hoax during an interview with special agents with the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation's Wytheville Field Office.

Law enforcement officers left the campus, and the lockdown has been lifted. 

An investigation into the incident is ongoing.