Virginia Tech is no stranger to emergency situations as the university campus was once again the site of an unexplained shooting. This time, Virginia Tech Police Officer Deriek Crouse was shot and killed on campus while performing a routine traffic stop in the middle of the day on Dec. 8. While this unforeseen tragedy unfolded, the university’s alert system worked to keep students and staff on alert.

GNS Magazine reported on this tragedy, highlighting the effectiveness of the alert system – which included text messages, voice broadcasts, and e-mails – sent out during the emergency. The shooting took place around 12:15 p.m. in the Cassell Coliseum parking lot. The alleged shooter fled the scene after the fatal shots were fired. A man was reportedly found dead of a gunshot wound a quarter of a mile away.

Minutes after the event unfolded, the university’s alert system went into effect, notifying students of the incident. Text messages were sent out at 12:30 to all faculty and students. One staff member reportedly received a text message informing him that shots had been reported in the Coliseum parking lot and he should stay inside and secure all doors.

Following the 2007 mass shooting attack at Virginia Tech, the university installed an emergency alert system referred to as VT Alerts. The university was criticized in the wake of the massacre in which student Seung-Hui Cho went on a shooting rampage and killed 32 others and himself. The institution lacked any type of system that would have kept students and staff informed of the emergency and may have even prevented some deaths.

Now, the university uses VT Alerts as its emergency alert system to send messages out to staff and students with a variety of information delivery methods, including broadcast e-mails, alerts on the home Web page, electronic message boards in classrooms, voice broadcast alerts, emergency hotlines, desktop alerts, loudspeakers and campus sirens. Students also have the ability to follow Twitter (News - Alert) feeds from the university’s newspaper.

Charles Steger, Virginia Tech president, sent a condolence letter to students and staff on Dec. 8, announcing the loss of Officer Crouse. “Dear Colleagues: It is with a deep – and regrettably familiar – sense of sadness that I write to you. Once again, the campus and the community that we love so well have been visited by senseless violence and tragic loss,” he said.

“Tragedy again struck Virginia Tech in a wanton act of violence where our police officer, Deriek Crouse, was murdered during a routine traffic stop. My heart goes out to his family who will surely feel most keenly, in the days and months and years ahead, the profound loss that today’s events have brought to pass. We extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to his family and to his colleagues in the police department,” he said.

While this tragedy is a significant loss for the university and the family and friends of Officer Crouse, the immediate use of the emergency alert system ensured this incident was contained and no other innocent individuals were hurt.