SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- It seemed like a bad dream. Another shooting rampage, this time, at Northern Illinois University Six dead including the gunman. 740 miles away in Syracuse, New York, the tragedy hits home.
"First, there's grief. Reaching out to the students and the faculty. Then there's this thinking about how would we handle it at our campus. Are we ready, am I ready to lead the campus in a situation like this," said Dr. Shawn Ward, Le Moyne College's Vice President of Student Development.
Ward said all students will receive an email in the event of an emergency. The college is working to do the same via text messaging. A System that exists at Syracuse University and was tested last week. A glitch prevented some from receiving the text, but most got the message and passed it on.
Last spring, the Virginia Tech shooting shocked the nation. And Thursday's shooting at Northern Illinois University was a sobering reminder that tragedy can strike anywhere. Our Nneka Nwosu met with officials at two Syracuse colleges who say in the event of a shooting, they are as prepared as they can be.
"The first person that gets the message on their text, they're going to tell everyone about it. And we found that that in fact happened," said Anthony Callisto Jr., Syracuse University Public Safety Chief.
Syracuse University held a meeting Friday to address the glitches in its emergency alert system. Coincidentally that meeting was scheduled prior to the tragic events at NIU.
"We know that everything that they did with regards to notifying their students and securing the scene and protecting the students, we have every capability of doing here and then some," said Callisto.
NIU sent a University wide alert via its website within 20 minutes of the shooting, and the campus went on lockdown. All lessons from Virginia Tech.
"I don't think you can prevent it. But you want to reduce your risk and you want to create as much safety as possible. As an educational institution keeping people aware and alert is something we should be doing at all times," said Ward.
Police said the gunman in the Illinois shooting, Stephen Kazmierczak, was a disturbed individual who had stopped taking his medication. However, he was said to be an outstanding student with an interest in criminal justice.