UK students process shots fired alert one day after mass shooting at Michigan State University

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – University of Kentucky students processing not only the mass shooting at Michigan State University on Tuesday but an alert for a shooting on their own campus just over 24 hours later.

“It’s like becoming way too frequently and it’s like, I think it’s just something that needs to be cut down,” says UK senior Harris Altherr.

For some UK students, the alert they received around 1:30 Wednesday morning about shots fired on campus did not surprise them.

“At first, when you hear it occasionally it’s like really scary but now of course, it’s happening more and more frequently so it’s, unfortunately, it’s a part of like almost every day,” says Altherr.

For UK freshman Elliott Brininger, the last two days have hit especially hard being an out-of-state student from Michigan.

“It’s scary. I mean, having your best friends at a college where it’s considered a safe school and then having something like that happen was really traumatic,” says Brininger.

Brininger says she worries going into every class if there will be a shooting but says it’s a common fear for many her age to have.

“I think Kentucky’s a really safe campus but I think when it comes to shootings, I don’t think there’s a safe place. I think shootings happen everywhere. I mean just seeing Michigan State like it shows that it can happen to any school,” says Brininger.

UK says officers responded to the shooting in under two minutes and it was determined there was not an active shooter on campus. Police say they discovered someone had shot a gun inside a car near Cooper Drive and University Drive, near Kroger Field. Investigators say no victims reported so far. The university says an investigation is still ongoing but their priority was keeping students informed and safe while it was an active scene.

“We’re really in many ways a big city. There’s 33,000 students, 25,000 employees, tens of thousands of guests on any given day, we’re a city. The same things that happen in a city happen on a campus,” says Jay Blanton, UK Chief Communication Officer.

UK says it’s invested millions of dollars into campus safety with things like more than 50 sworn officers and the latest safety technology and cameras.

“Safety is something we all have to prioritize. We have to think about how we keep ourselves safe, we have to think about how we keep each other as a community safe,” says Blanton. “We also have to just always be vigilant about the fact that we’re trying to be each other’s brothers’ and sisters’ keeper.”