Campus Alert Archive
UCF

The Roommate's 911 Call That Saved a Dormitory: How UCF's Tower I Evacuation Foiled a Mass Shooting in Progress

FLactive shooteremergency notificationmedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

Just after midnight on Monday, March 18, 2013, evicted UCF student James Oliver Seevakumaran, 30, pulled a fire alarm inside Tower I, a seven-story residence hall housing approximately 500 students at the University of Central Florida. He had loaded an AR-15-style rifle, a handgun, hundreds of rounds, and four improvised explosive devices into a backpack, and intended to shoot students as they evacuated. His roommate, Arabo Babakhani, saw the rifle and escaped to call 911 — the call that police credit with foiling the attack. Seevakumaran killed himself before officers arrived. UCF Police evacuated Tower I, set off a campus-wide UCF Alert, and canceled all Monday classes.

Alerts
4
Response
10 min
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
University of Central Florida
Public R1 · FL
~60,000 studentsUCF Alert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

4 messages in sequence

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Approximate reconstruction101 chars
UCF ALERT: Suspicious activity reported in Tower 1. UCFPD responding. Avoid area. Tower 1 evacuating.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Sent within minutes of the roommate's 911 call — Babakhani had escaped from Room 308 after Seevakumaran pointed the AR-15 at him
The alert classification 'Suspicious activity' rather than 'Active shooter' reflects what UCFPD knew at that moment — that a fire alarm had been pulled and a gun had been seen, but no shots had been fired
Tower I houses approximately 500 students; the evacuation became a critical decision because Seevakumaran had pulled the alarm specifically to draw students into the open
UPDATESMS
Approximate reconstructionReconstructed from CBS News reporting describing the alert sent after officers entered Room 308 and discovered the body and devices146 chars
UCF ALERT: Suspicious death reported in Tower 1. Possible explosive devices. Bomb squad responding. Tower 1 and nearby buildings remain evacuated.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

First mention of 'explosive devices' — police had found a backpack containing four IEDs, an assault rifle, a handgun, and hundreds of rounds in Room 308
The phrase 'suspicious death' is a deliberate Clery Act framing: UCF did not yet know whether the body was a suicide, homicide, or accidental death
Triggered response from the Orlando Police Department bomb squad, which arrived to disable the four IEDs
UPDATEEmail
Approximate reconstruction210 chars
UCF Alert: Classes on Main Campus will be canceled for Monday, March 18, 2013. UCFPD continues to investigate the situation in Tower 1. Tower 1 remains closed. All other buildings are open. Updates will follow.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Class cancellation was a discretionary call — by 5 AM the immediate danger had passed, but UCFPD was still processing what they had found
UCF's main campus enrolled approximately 60,000 students at the time, making this one of the larger Monday class cancellations in U.S. higher-education history outside weather events
The phrase 'All other buildings are open' was deliberate — Tower I residents were being relocated, but the rest of the campus needed to know that the threat was contained
FOLLOW-UPEmail
Approximate reconstruction241 chars
UCF Alert: Police have determined that the individual found deceased in Tower 1 acted alone. The investigation is ongoing. Tower 1 will reopen this afternoon with the exception of the third floor. There is no continuing threat to the campus.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

'Acted alone' was a deliberate phrase to address speculation about co-conspirators after the discovery of the IEDs
Reopening Tower I the same day — except for the third floor where Seevakumaran's body was found — reflected an institutional commitment to minimize disruption to the 500 displaced residents
The Orange County Sheriff's Office bomb squad had disabled the four IEDs by this time
Context

Background

The thwarted March 18, 2013, mass shooting at the University of Central Florida is one of the most-studied examples of a campus attack interrupted in progress. James Oliver Seevakumaran, 30, was a former business student who had been at UCF from fall 2010 through fall 2012 and was being evicted from Tower I — a seven-story residence hall housing approximately 500 students at the time. Around midnight on Monday, March 18, Seevakumaran put on a black tactical vest, picked up an AR-15-style rifle and a Glock handgun, loaded four homemade improvised explosive devices into a backpack, and pulled the fire alarm in his hallway. He intended to shoot students as they streamed out of the building. His roommate, Arabo Babakhani, saw the rifle, locked himself in their dorm room's bathroom, and called 911. Seevakumaran knocked on the bathroom door; when Babakhani didn't open it, Seevakumaran shot himself with the handgun. Police arrived within minutes — drawn both by the 911 call and the fire alarm — to find Seevakumaran dead in Room 308 along with a 'to-do list' he had handwritten that included steps like 'put rounds in a bag,' 'wait for fire alarm,' and a final unchecked item: 'give them hell.' UCF's emergency notification system was activated almost immediately, sending text and email alerts to the campus community. The university canceled Monday classes and worked with the Orange County Sheriff's bomb squad to disable the four IEDs. UCF Police Chief Richard Beary later told CNN that the 911 call from Babakhani — and the speed of the police response prompted by the simultaneous fire alarm — were what prevented a mass-casualty attack. The case became an instructive example in campus emergency planning of how a hostile actor's own diversion plan (pulling the fire alarm to draw victims out) can be counteracted by integrating campus-police response with fire-alarm dispatch.
Analysis

Key Findings

The combination of a roommate's 911 call and a simultaneous fire alarm produced one of the fastest documented police responses to a planned campus attack, arriving before any students were shot
Seevakumaran's plan — pulling a fire alarm at midnight to force evacuation into a fatal funnel — illustrates a pattern of would-be attackers exploiting safety protocols, and was specifically referenced in subsequent campus active-shooter training programs
UCF had never seen Seevakumaran at its Counseling and Psychological Services and he had no student conduct record, despite being in the process of eviction — illustrating the gap between housing administrative records and mental-health-system flags
Four functional IEDs were recovered by the Orange County Sheriff's bomb squad along with an AR-15-style rifle, a handgun, and several hundred rounds of ammunition — making this one of the most heavily armed thwarted campus attacks on U.S. record
Outcome
James Seevakumaran was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Room 308 of Tower I. No students were injured. UCF Police later recovered an AR-15-style rifle, a handgun, several hundred rounds of ammunition, four improvised explosive devices, and a handwritten 'to-do list' the gunman had completed except for the final entry: 'give them hell.' Tower I was reopened later that day with the exception of the third floor. Roommate Arabo Babakhani was widely credited as having saved hundreds of lives.
Provenance

Sources

  1. News
    James Seevakumaran, evicted UCF student, ID'd as man found shot dead on campus; planned wider attack, police say (CBS News)
    cbsnews.com
  2. News
    Former university student found dead in dorm planned larger attack (CNN)
    cnn.com
  3. News
    UCF attack plotter checked off to-do list except for last item: 'Give them hell' (CNN)
    cnn.com
  4. Student Paper
    Ten years since a UCF student attempted a mass shooting on campus (The Charge, Nicholson Student Media)
    nicholsonstudentmedia.com
  5. News
    UCF Evacuation: Students evacuated from University of Central Florida campus dorm after body and explosives found (CBS News)
    cbsnews.com
  6. News
    UCF releases more evidence on planned campus attack (News4Jax)
    news4jax.com
  7. News
    UCF Gunman's To-Do List Ended With 'Give 'Em Hell' (ABC News)
    abcnews.com
Tags
active-shooterthwarted-attackexplosive-devicesdormitoryfire-alarm-diversionevicted-studentucf-alert2013
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion