Campus Alert Archive
UW

Bullet Strikes Fifth-Floor Dorm Window at Midnight: UW Alerts 48,000-Student Campus Within Minutes

WAshootingemergency notificationhigh confidence
Under Investigation

Just before midnight on May 10, 2025, a bullet struck a fifth-floor window of Maple Hall, a student dormitory at the University of Washington. UW's official Alert Blog posted at 12:23 a.m. with the 12:22 a.m. alert text describing a white vehicle seen leaving a nearby parking lot, then updated at 12:35 a.m. to say UW Police found no ongoing threat. No injuries were reported.

Alerts
2
Response
—
Killed
—
Injured
—
Institution
University of Washington
Public R1 · WA
~48,000 studentsUW Alert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

2 messages in sequence · 2 verified verbatim

INITIAL ALERTWebsite
Verified verbatimUW Alert Blog official post367 chars
12:22 a.m.: UW Police are responding after a bullet hit a fifth-floor window in Maple Hall just before midnight. No one was hurt, and police believe there is no ongoing threat. The shot may have come from a white vehicle seen leaving a nearby parking lot. The vehicle left the parking lot headed east. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call 911.
The primary-source text is calmer than the earlier reconstruction: it says police believed there was no ongoing threat even in the initial 12:22 a.m. notice.
UW included a sparse vehicle lead but did not instruct the whole campus to avoid Maple Hall, a narrow protective-action choice for a projectile strike with no injuries.
The alert names Maple Hall and the fifth-floor window, a high-specificity location detail useful to residents without disclosing room-level information.
ALL CLEARWebsite+13 min
Verified verbatimUW Alert Blog official update115 chars
UPDATE 12:35 a.m.: UW Police have searched the area and determined that there is no ongoing threat near Maple Hall.
The follow-up arrived 13 minutes after the initial alert, a very fast alert-to-update interval for a late-night shots-fired investigation.
The update is deliberately local: 'near Maple Hall' rather than a campus-wide all-clear, keeping the scope tied to the searched area.
UW did not repeat the vehicle description in the all-clear; the message focused only on the area search and threat status.
Context

Background

Just before midnight on May 10, 2025, a bullet struck the fifth-floor window of Maple Hall, a student dormitory at the University of Washington in Seattle. The official UW Alert Blog posted the first notice at 12:23 a.m., preserving a 12:22 a.m. alert that said UW Police were responding and believed there was no ongoing threat. FOX 13 Seattle reported that the shot hit the fifth-floor window and summarized the 12:35 a.m. no-ongoing-threat follow-up. The white-vehicle lead is unusually thin: the official alert says only that the vehicle left a nearby parking lot headed east, leaving no plate, make, or occupant description for residents to act on. No injuries were reported, but the fifth-floor impact made this a serious near-miss for a residential hall. The incident occurred weeks before a fatal shooting near Greek Row on July 31, adding to 2025 concerns about gunfire near UW's Seattle campus.
Analysis

Key Findings

A bullet striking a fifth-floor dormitory window represents a near-miss that could have seriously injured sleeping students
The 13-minute alert-to-all-clear timeline reflects efficient communication for a nighttime incident
Two shooting incidents near UW within weeks (Maple Hall in May and Greek Row fatal in July) raised broader campus safety concerns
Outcome
No injuries were reported. The shot may have originated from a white vehicle observed leaving a nearby parking lot heading east. UW Police determined there was no ongoing threat by 12:35 AM.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Official
    UW Alert - UW Alert Blog
    emergency.uw.edu
  2. News
    UW police confirm shots fired near dorm, bullet strikes window (KOMO News)
    komonews.com
  3. News
    UW Police investigate bullet hitting Maple Hall dorm window (FOX 13 Seattle)
    fox13seattle.com
Tags
shootingdormitorywashingtonbullet-strikes-windowmidnightno-injuriesvehicle-suspectUnder Investigation
Added April 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion