Olivia Woo, Contributing Photographer

Yale Police arrested an individual in Bass Library on Thursday afternoon, responding to a caller who reported the individual was carrying a handgun.

In the library, the officers found the suspect seated at a desk carrying money, with a supposed firearm visible in their pocket, Yale Police Department Chief Anthony Campbell wrote to the News. Upon taking the individual into custody, the officers determined that the weapon was fake.

YPD Lieutenant Jay Jones, who supervised the arrest, said that the arrestee was “probably not” a Yale student or affiliate. YPD Chief Anthony Campbell clarified that the department has “no information regarding any Yale affiliation.”

“The 28-year-old individual was taken into custody without incident,” Campbell wrote to the News on Thursday evening. “The investigation remains active and at this point the person’s identity remains unknown.”

According to Campbell, the arrestee was charged with breach of peace in the second degree — a catch-all charge for social disturbance — and with brandishing a fake firearm. He added that further charges might be added depending on the result of the police department’s ongoing investigation into the incident.

Students seated on the top floor of Bass, adjacent to Room C80A, reported that around 1:40 p.m., a person seated at a wooden cubicle was arrested. According to Kierstin Gehres ’27, who was seated across from the cubicle where the arrested individual sat, the officers entered Bass through the tunnel from Sterling Library and approached the individual. 

Campbell wrote to the News that a responding officer observed “what appeared to be a black handgun” sticking out from the individual’s pocket.

“The item was immediately secured, and a second similar item was observed in the opposite pocket,” Campbell wrote. “Both items were determined to be realistic-looking facsimile firearms” — convincing copies of the weapons.

Campbell noted that officers learned that the individual was also in possession of multiple live nine-millimeter cartridges and a four-inch folding lock blade knife.

After taking away the false weapons, the officers escorted the individual out of the library. Officers were spotted surrounding two police vehicles parked on Alexander Walk, the path between Beinecke Plaza and Berkeley College, at approximately 2 p.m. A third police car was parked at the end of the walkway, on College Street. 

Officers escorted the individual to a police vehicle. The police cars left the area at approximately 2:10 p.m., with one driving along Alexander Walk towards York Street and the other towards College Street. 

Thursday’s arrest marked the second YPD action on Cross Campus in two days, after officers took into custody an individual allegedly attempting to break into Berkeley College with a cloned ID card. Jones said that this frequency of on-campus arrests is not unusual for the campus police. 

The Yale Police Department was founded in 1894.

Olivia Woo, Jerry Gao, Baala Shakya, Yolanda Wang and Karla Cortes contributed reporting.