Yale Health was briefly shut down on Thursday night after a person made “threatening gestures and statements” to pharmacy staff members at the facility, Yale Vice President for Communications Eileen O’Connor told the News.
“He left Yale Health and security staff and Yale Police were notified” O’Connor said. “The building was secured and Yale Alerts were issued. The individual was arrested and has been banned from Yale campus.”
Yale sent a University-wide alert informing students of a threat against the Yale Health building on 7:40 p.m. on Thursday. Thirty-nine minutes later, a follow-up alert informed Yalies that a suspect was in custody. Before the update was sent, Yale Police Department Lt. Brian Logan told the News that the threat had been resolved within 20 minutes of the first alert. The suspect was arrested in West Haven, according to David Hartman, spokesman for the New Haven Police Department.
O’Connor said she does not know whether the University will release any other details and declined to comment further on the incident. University spokesman Tom Conroy did not respond on Thursday night when asked whether the suspect has any Yale affiliation.
The incident has provoked concern and curiosity among Yalies.
Following the alert, Anna Lazarova ’21 said she texted several friends to ask if they knew what had happened.
“Yale Health is a safe place where people go for support and counselling,” Lazarova said. “It is important that we as students know what is going on.”
Lazarova added that it is important for Yale to be open about potential dangers on campus. She said that rather than merely sending an alert, Yale should provide students with specific details about what is happening during an incident.
Darnell Robinson ’21 said he still has many unanswered questions about the incident.
“I just want at least some kind of explanation, but they gave absolutely no information,” he said.
But Serena Ly ’20 said she does not blame Yale for not including all the details of the incident in the alerts because she understands that police were still collecting evidence and did not want to provoke ungrounded fears among students.
Sammy Westfall | sammy.westfall@yale.edu