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WASHINGTON - American University officials give "all clear" after the campus was put on lockdown for reports of an armed intruder near campus Wednesday afternoon.
The lockdown was lifted just after 4:30 p.m. University officials say the campus was placed on lockdown on Wednesday out of an abundance of caution, after reports that a white male with an exposed handgun was spotted in the 3300 block of New Mexico Avenue, NW at around 1 p.m.
Those on campus were asked to lock doors and stay away from windows, while officers were investigating. Those who were outside were told to leave campus immediately.
American University, DC Police and the Secret Service were all involved in the investigation, campus officials say. Officials conducted a building-by-building search.
AU Police focused their investigation on the Main Campus as well as East Campus, and 3201 New Mexico Ave, Northwest.
Several campus members reported that they had not received any form of alert from the university when the lockdown was first announced.
American University says e-mail alerts were delayed due to a technical issue, but have been resolved.
The college recommends members of the community check the university website, as well as tweets from @AmericanU and @AmericanUPolice.
American University student Jeremy McLane, tells The Eagle he last received an AU alert via text message on March 20, despite alerts being issued since then.
"The only way I found out [about AU alerts] was via social media," McLane said. "I ended up turning on Twitter notifications for the AU alerts accounts because I don't know if I'll get them when I return to campus."
Several visiting college students have been residing on American University's campus while in DC for summer internships, staying campus dorms including Nebraska Hall. It is not known how many people were on campus at the time of the lockdown.