Students react to CCU text alerts during shooting - FOX Carolina 21

CONWAY, SC (WMBF) – Coastal Carolina University used any form of electronic media it could to warn its students of an active shooter on campus Tuesday night. But, some students wonder why it took so long in the first place to get an alert sent out.

"The first CCU alert went out around 8 o'clock," said CCU Communications Director Martha Hunn. "The next one went out at 8:14. The final CCU Alert was at 9:52."

Hunn says the University Communications office was trying to stay on top of all the details in Tuesday night's shooting which killed 19 year-old student Anthony Liddell. But some students in the University Place apartments where Liddell was shot say the alerts were too little, too late.

"We started getting alerts about 20 or 30 minutes after police came," said student Lauren Batdorf, who also witnessed the shooting. She says officers responded quickly, but the lockdown mentioned by the alerts was in name only.

"My friend came to check on me," she said. "He lives in the dorms, and they told him ‘You're not allowed to leave.' He just left anyway."

Batdorf says part of the problem comes from the mentality of freedom most college students have.

"We're independent people, and they can't tell us what to do," she said.

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