MSU student charged in shooting threats
Freshman said would kill himself, others
JACKSON — A student who Mississippi State University officials say threatened to kill himself and others will face misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges and has been referred for a mental and psychological evaluation.
MSU police arrested PhuQui Cong “Bill” Nguyen, a freshman from Madison, after a campus alert warning of an “active shooter” prompted a lockdown. MSU Police Chief Vance Rice said Nguyen did not have a gun when they arrested him, that no shots were fired on the 20,000-student campus in Starkville, and no one was hurt.
MSU spokesman Sid Salter said he didn’t know if Nguyen, a computer engineering major, had a lawyer who could speak for him. The Associated Press could not locate his family members Thursday.
Warren Strain, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, said Nguyen was on the phone with an Army recruiter in the Jackson area when the recruiter became concerned that Nguyen was considering suicide and directed a co-worker to call MSU. The Mississippi Highway Patrol was also called and told the university that Nguyen was threatening to shoot others, according to a transcript of the call released by MSU.
“MSU to all units, we have a possible active shooter in Carpenter Hall,” the university police dispatcher then broadcast, according to the transcript. “This is not a test.”
The university sent text and Internet alerts to students, faculty and staff, sending them scrambling to lock themselves into offices and classrooms. Nguyen was arrested a short time later in front of McCool Hall on the Drill Field, the quadrangle at the heart of campus.
“When the university receives a credible threat, the Maroon alert process kicks in,” Salter said at a news conference. “We don’t wait around for a student or staffer or a faculty member to be injured. We implement the policy as soon as that threat is recognized.”
Rice told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal that Nguyen was taken to a local hospital.