UPDATE: 12:30 p.m. The day of the incident has been added to the lead graph.
Campus police detained two students and are trying to charge them with possession of a replica gun within 100 feet of the Child Development Center in the Lot L parking lot on Tuesday, El Camino Police Chief Michael Trevis said.
A student walked into the campus police station to report that he saw three males sitting in a car in Lot L and one of them appeared to be showing a gun to the others, Trevis said.
“Officers were nearby, detained the people and determined that the weapon was an (Air Soft replica MP5 submachine gun)” Trevis said.
Trevis added that the gun is similar to a BB or pellet gun.
It was confirmed by Trevis that all three males are students, but police are only looking to charge two of the students, because the third “didn’t take part in aiming the gun.”
A Nixle alert was sent out as a campus advisory at 9:59 a.m. informing El Camino students, faculty and the community that there was a man with a gun in his vehicle on the south side of the Lot L parking lot.
Nixle is an emergency alert system that sends messages informing people when emergency situations happen on campus, or in other areas.
At 10:05 a.m., a Nixle was sent out by the police department that said, “Parking Lot L South area all clear.
While the suspects were being detained students who were walking in the parking lot said that they had no knowledge that this incident had occurred because they weren’t signed up for Nixle alerts.
“I’m just walking to my car and I could have been in danger, professors should let students know while they’re in class,” William Dover, 33, nursing major, said. “They should make more of an effort to let students know about the dangers on campus.”
But some students are more concerned with the fact that there was a gun on campus.
“I literally just got on campus and it worries me,” Aaron Slaughter, 20, kinesiology major, said, because he walked right by it.
To sign up for Nixle text “El Camino” to 888-777.