Student who fired airsoft gun posed no threat to university
By JORDAN GREEN, Editor-in-Chief
A March 28 incident in which a student fired an airsoft gun in a classroom posed no threat to campus safety, university administrators said Tuesday.
Rumors have swirled on campus for days over allegations that a student shot another student with a toy airsoft gun, but the accused student and university officials have refuted the rumors, saying the student’s attempt to clean his toy gun turned into a major misunderstanding.
Campus police responded to Shockley Hall shortly before 11 a.m. on March 28 after Northwestern professor Dr. Dena Walker reported that student Chase Cable fired an airsoft rifle in a classroom. Cable did fire the gun, but – contrary to rumors that he shot a student in the class – he actually shot the airsoft gun into a trash can to clean the gun’s barrel out, he said.
“I didn’t shoot anybody with a gun,” Cable told the Northwestern News on Tuesday. “That’s the thing being spread around, and I have a pretty big issue with it. … All I know is, somebody’s saying something wrong.”
The incident remains under investigation, said Kelsey Martin, Northwestern’s director of marketing and university relations.
WHAT HAPPENED
Cable arrived at Shockley Hall about 10 minutes before his class began on March 28, and he had the airsoft gun in his backpack, he said. He and his friends have been playing with airsoft guns for several months, and he wanted to have his at his disposal.
Unlike most airsoft guns that shoot plastic pellets, Cable’s gun shoots gel-like balls called “Orbeez,” which pop on impact. Some of the balls had broken inside his backpack, and they made the airsoft gun’s barrel dirty, he said. Before class began, he aimed the gun into a trashcan and fired it to clean out residue inside the barrel.
Walker heard the sound of the airsoft gun firing. She came into the classroom to investigate the noise. There, Cable and Walker got into an argument about the incident, Cable said.
Walker called campus police, and Police Chief Cole Servis arrived in about a minute and a half, officials and Cable say. Cable was escorted out of the classroom.
Servis and the university’s Student Services office determined the incident was not an emergency, Martin said, so university administrators did not send out an emergency alert.
Walker declined to comment, deferring to Dean of Student Affairs Calleb Mosburg and Martin.
Cable said any controversy from the event stemmed from poor communication.
“It was just an incident that was misunderstood, miscommunicated, got blown out of proportion, and I guess nobody ever cleared the air, so it’s just getting stirred around,” he said.
“I was stupid enough to have it [the airsoft gun] in my backpack. But I’m not stupid enough to pull it out and just start lighting people up in class.”
INACCURATE INFORMATION
On Monday, a Northwestern student sent an email to Northwestern administrators and several news outlets, saying she was emotionally unsettled by the incident. She also said she was upset that administrators didn’t notify students about it.
Camille Soderstrom told the Northwestern News in a Tuesday interview that she learned about the event from one of her friends, who heard about it from another friend, who learned about the incident from a group chat.
Soderstrom was not in the room when the gun was fired, and the Northwestern News has independently verified that some of the allegations in the email she sent were inaccurate. She claimed that Cable is a current student athlete. However, he is not, though he was formerly on the university football team. She also claimed that “nothing was done” to discipline Cable.
University officials confirmed that Cable faced disciplinary action, though they did not explain what it was. Disciplinary action is protected student information under federal law, Martin said.
Soderstrom said she wanted administrators to notify students even though the event was not an emergency.
“If they had sent out an email regarding the incident, then none of these inaccuracies would exist,” Soderstrom said. “We wouldn’t have any rumors.”
She also said she still feels unsafe, even though she has met with Mosburg to discuss the airsoft incident.
“Most of the students I’ve talked to have agreed that they still feel unsafe,” Soderstrom said.
SAFETY IS A ‘TOP PRIORITY’
Northwestern President Dr. Janet Cunningham sent an email to students Tuesday, saying the university will improve its communication about events in the future.
“After visiting with our campus community, I realize a message should have been sent to everyone to make them aware of the situation, and that there was no threat to student or employee safety,” Cunningham said. “Policies have already been revised to ensure more transparency with the campus community in the future. Your safety is my top priority and will remain so.”
ORBEEZ CHALLENGE GROWS
The March 28 incident at Northwestern comes amid growing concerns over a trend on social media platform TikTok that challenges people to shoot Orbeez pellets at each other and film it.
Some police departments are warning people that the “Orbeez Challenge,” also called the “Splatterball Challenge,” could result in criminal charges. The Northwestern incident was unrelated, however.
Cunningham also said in her email that guns and objects resembling guns are prohibited on university property.
Martin said students who have safety concerns should talk with university administrators.
“Campus safety is our top priority, and we want students to feel that they are always safe with us,” Martin said.