Campus Alert Archive
MSU

A Freshman's Phoned-In Suicide-and-Homicide Threat Locked Down Mississippi State and Named Carpenter Hall by Building

MSthreat of violenceemergency notificationhigh confidence
Confirmed Threat

On the morning of August 27, 2015, Mississippi State University was placed on lockdown after MSU Police received a relayed call at approximately 10:10 a.m. CDT from the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol about a 'credible threat' from a freshman student claiming he was on campus and intending suicide and homicide. The Maroon Alert went out at approximately 10:16 a.m. CDT naming Carpenter Hall as the suspect's last known location. The freshman, identified by authorities as Nguyen, was taken into custody at 10:26 a.m. near McCool Hall. No gun was recovered and no shots were ever fired.

Alerts
2
Response
6 min
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
Mississippi State University
Public R1 · MS
~22,000 studentsMaroon Alert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence · 2 verified verbatim

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Verified verbatimScripps News — direct quote of the Maroon Alert SMS as received by students102 chars
Active shooter reported at Carpenter hall. Last seen in vicinity of Lee hall. Seek Safety immediately.
The lowercase 'hall' in 'Carpenter hall' and 'Lee hall' is preserved as sent — a typo in the original Maroon Alert that was never corrected
The alert classifies the incident as 'active shooter' even though no shots had been fired and no weapon had been confirmed — based on a relayed call from the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol
Sent at approximately 10:16 a.m. CDT — about 6 minutes after MSU Police received the relayed call from MHSP at approximately 10:10 a.m. CDT
Carpenter Hall and Lee Hall are central academic buildings on MSU's Starkville campus — naming them was specific enough to allow targeted shelter-in-place response
ALL CLEARSMS
Verified verbatimWTVR reporting that quotes the verbatim Maroon Alert all-clear SMS, including the original 'We as issuing' typo84 chars
We as issuing an all clear. Classes and normal campus operations will resume at 2pm.
Preserves the original 'We as issuing' typo (likely 'We are issuing') exactly as sent — a signature authenticity marker
Resumption time of '2pm' is operationally specific rather than the vague 'shortly' or 'later today' often seen in college all-clears
85-character all-clear is the same compact paradigm as the initial Maroon Alert — MSU consistently respects SMS character limits
No mention of counseling services in the actual SMS — that messaging came in subsequent president and dean follow-ups, not the Maroon Alert itself
Context

Background

Mississippi State University is a public R1 research university in Starkville with roughly 22,000 students, the state's largest university. On the morning of August 27, 2015, the Mississippi State University Police Department received a relayed call at approximately 10:10 a.m. CDT from the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol about a 'credible threat' — a freshman student claiming he was on the Starkville campus, threatening 'suicide and homicide.' At approximately 10:16 a.m. CDT, MSU issued a Maroon Alert SMS reading 'Active shooter reported at Carpenter hall. Last seen in vicinity of Lee hall. Seek Safety immediately' (lowercase 'hall' typos preserved as sent). Approximately ten minutes later, at 10:26 a.m. CDT, the suspect — a freshman from Madison identified as Nguyen — was taken into custody near McCool Hall — no weapon was recovered and no shots had been fired. State troopers said publicly: 'No gunman at Mississippi State.' The case is significant for the archive because (a) the verbatim 101-character Maroon Alert text remains a paradigm of post-Virginia Tech minimalist alerting — building names, action verb, no padding — and (b) it shows how a relayed call (MHSP to MSU PD to MSU community) can compress a credibility chain to a few minutes and produce an 'active shooter' designation that was later rolled back when no weapon was found. The incident also predates the later Maroon Alert tests in July 2024 that institutionalized broader student training on how to respond to MSU alert language.
Analysis

Key Findings

The Maroon Alert SMS was 101 characters — a lean, post-Virginia Tech paradigm of alerting that named two buildings (Carpenter Hall, Lee Hall) and gave one action verb
The lowercase 'hall' typos in 'Carpenter hall' and 'Lee hall' were never corrected — preserved here as authentic to the original message
MSU classified the threat as 'active shooter' based on a relayed call from the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol, even though no weapon was ever recovered and no shots were fired
The suspect, a freshman from Madison identified as Nguyen, was apprehended near McCool Hall at 10:26 a.m. CDT — about ten minutes after the alert went out
The lockdown was lifted at approximately 1:00 p.m. CDT with classes resuming at 2 p.m. — a roughly three-hour total disruption
Outcome
Lockdown lifted at approximately 1:00 p.m. CDT, with classes and normal operations resuming at 2 p.m. The suspect — a Mississippi State freshman from Madison, identified as Nguyen — was taken into custody at 10:26 a.m. CDT near McCool Hall, about ten minutes after the Maroon Alert went out. No weapon was found. No shots were fired. No injuries. The student was expected to face mental-health evaluation; charges were not immediately publicly announced.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    MSU placed on lockdown after student reportedly made violent threats — Action News 5
    actionnews5.com
  2. News
    Mississippi State: Student made threats that led to alert — CBS News
    cbsnews.com
  3. News
    Active Shooter Alert Prompts Lockdown At Mississippi State (VIDEO) — Scripps News
    scrippsnews.com
  4. News
    Student who made threat at Mississippi State in custody, no shots ever fired — WHNT
    whnt.com
  5. News
    MSU Students Safe After 'Active Shooter' Alert — Mississippi Public Broadcasting
    mpbonline.org
  6. Official
    The Maroon Alert System — Mississippi State Emergency Information
    emergency.msstate.edu
Tags
threat-of-violencedeep-southmississippimississippi-statemaroon-alertlockdownstarkvillecarpenter-hallverbatim-confirmedactive-shooter-alertno-weapon-found
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion