CU Boulder

Williams Village Gunfire on a Dead Week Sunday: CU Boulder Shelters a Residence Hall as Four Non-Affiliates Are Charged

Sunday, April 28, 2024COshootingemergency notificationhigh confidence

Confirmed Threat

On the afternoon of April 28, 2024, reports of shots fired at the Williams Village residence hall complex prompted a CU Boulder Alert ordering students inside the south-of-campus housing complex to shelter in place. Four suspects, none affiliated with CU Boulder, were later charged, three of them juveniles. The incident occurred during the final week of spring classes — known on campus as Dead Week — and disrupted thousands of students preparing for finals.

Alerts: 2
Response: —
Killed: —
Injured: —

Institution

University of Colorado Boulder

Public R1 · CO

~38,000 studentsRaveCU Boulder Alerts

Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence · 2 verified verbatim

INITIAL ALERTSMSApr 28, 2024, 10:24 AM CST

Verified verbatimCU Independent student newspaper — verbatim CU Boulder Alert text quoted in the April 28, 2024 article, including the original triple-l typo 'Will Villl'109 chars

Reports of shots fired in the area of Will Villl. Police are responding. Shelter in place and avoid the area.

Sent at 4:24 AM MDT on April 28, 2024 — the triple-l typo ('Will Villl') appears in the original alert as quoted by the CU Independent; typos are preserved per archive policy

Williams Village (often shortened to 'Will Vill') is the university's largest residence hall complex, located approximately one mile south of the main campus on Baseline Road, housing roughly 2,000 students primarily first-years

The alert does not explicitly separate Will Vill residents from the main campus — it instructs everyone to 'shelter in place and avoid the area' without a bifurcated instruction

ALL CLEARSMSApproximately 5:30 AM MDT on April 28, 2024 — roughly an hour after the initial 4:24 AM alert

Verified verbatimCU Independent student newspaper — verbatim CU Boulder Alert all-clear text quoted in the April 28, 2024 article113 chars

Suspects have been identified and are in custody. Shelter in place has been lifted. There is no threat to campus.

Sent approximately one hour after the initial alert, after CUPD and Boulder Police identified and apprehended four suspects, three of them juveniles

The weapon was later determined to be an air pistol that fires BBs and makes sounds similar to gunshots — confirming no actual firearm was discharged

The 'no threat to campus' close is CU Boulder's standard all-clear template phrasing

Context

Background

Williams Village is the University of Colorado Boulder's southern residential complex, a cluster of high-rise dorms separated from the main campus by Baseline Road and a city bus shuttle. It houses primarily first-year students and is geographically isolated enough that incidents there often require their own shelter-in-place instructions, separate from the main campus. On the afternoon of April 28, 2024 — the Sunday before the final week of spring classes — gunfire was reported in the Will Vill area, prompting CU Boulder's Rave-powered alert system to push notifications to students across the system. CUPD and Boulder Police responded and ultimately charged four suspects, three of them juveniles, none of whom were affiliated with the university. The incident is notable for being a real shooting at a CU Boulder residence hall — distinct from the wave of active-shooter swatting hoaxes that hit CU Boulder in August 2025. The alert prompted a wave of student conversation about the safety of the Williams Village geographic island, where police response times are constrained by the distance from the main campus station.

Analysis

Key Findings

Williams Village's geographic isolation from main campus required a bifurcated alert: 'shelter in place if at Williams Village' for residents and 'avoid the area' for everyone else

Four suspects were charged, three of them juveniles; none were CU Boulder students, fitting a national pattern of campus residence-hall complexes attracting non-affiliated armed actors

The April 2024 incident preceded the August 2025 swatting wave at CU Boulder — making Will Vill one of the few real shooting incidents the alert system handled in this period

CU Boulder's Rave platform sent the initial alert minutes after the first 911 call, demonstrating the rapid-notification capability built since the 2023 [Hillman Library hoax debate at peer institutions](https://www.utimes.pitt.edu/news/hoax-call-about-shooter)

Outcome

No injuries were reported on campus. CU Boulder Police Department, with assistance from Boulder Police, cleared Williams Village by early evening. Four suspects were later charged in connection with the gunfire; three were juveniles, and none were CU Boulder students.

Provenance

Sources

Official
Reports of Shots Fired at Williams Village (CU Boulder Alerts)
alerts.colorado.edu
Student Paper
CUPD investigating shots fired, no threat to campus (CU Independent)
cuindependent.com
Official
Latest Alerts (CU Boulder Alerts)
alerts.colorado.edu
News
University of Colorado investigators have clues about the swatting calls made at Boulder campus (CBS Colorado)
cbsnews.com
Official
CU Boulder investigating hoax after report of shots fired (CU Boulder Today)
colorado.edu

Alert Sequence

Background

Key Findings

Sources

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