An off-campus shooting rattled the Kennesaw State University community Monday, Sept. 21.
According to a statement issued by the KSU Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing, “the shooting…incident occurred at approximately 1:38 p.m. at the Citgo gas station at Frey Road and George Busbee Parkway, several blocks away from the Kennesaw State campus.”
Both Cobb County and KSU police officers responded to the incident, which was formally handled by the Cobb County Police Department.
When asked for comment on the shooting, Officer Alicia A. Chilton of the Cobb County Police Department’s Public Information Office stated, “A male employee was exiting the store, when he was shot in the leg. We have not made an arrest in this case yet.”
Due to the fact that the investigation is ongoing, the CCPD would offer no further comment.
The KSU Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing went on to say that both KSU and CCPD officers did not detect an immediate threat to the KSU campus. The office proceeded to post advisories concerning the incident on the KSU website, social media, the crisis coordinator’s network, and the internal communication system.
The incident has prompted criticism of the University’s response time in alerting the student body about security breaches in the surrounding area.
At 2:24 p.m. on Monday, the Kennesaw Emergency Management Twitter account tweeted about the shooting, and that a campus-wide alert would be sent out if the situation threatened the KSU campus.
At 3:15 p.m., the Kennesaw State University Office of Emergency Management’s Facebook page specified that, “The incident does not directly threaten the Kennesaw Campus as the suspect was last seen traveling away from Kennesaw Campus and toward Shiloh Road.”
At 7:53 p.m., an Off Campus Incident e-mail was sent to the student body, six hours after the incident occurred.
KSU Junior Amanda Howell commented, “I didn’t hear about the shooting until about an hour after it happened, and that was because of a tweet from WSB.” Howell continued, “I do still feel safe on campus, but I believe that the school needs to improve its alert system to fit the growing student body.”
On the other end of the response spectrum, there is Stadium Village, an off-campus apartment complex for KSU students. Located across the street from the Fifth Third Bank Stadium, the complex has recently implemented strict new rules in response to the shooting.
According to a flier posted in Stadium Village, as of Sept. 22, the complex has restricted access to amenities and the Stadium Village Avenue area to posted hours only. Management has also stationed police at the entrance of the complex for monitoring purposes.
Residents are upset about the strict rules and lack of notification before the complex implemented them.
Breanna Kennedy, a junior at KSU, said, “I understand these rules are for our safety, but if they just fixed the gates and cracked down on the people causing issues, then I think that would be more helpful instead of punishing everyone else.”
Jasmine Fortner, a sophomore resident of Stadium Village, was also frustrated with the changes.
“Although I appreciate Stadium Village’s attempt to put the safety of students first, I will not lie and say that I am not inconvenienced,” said Fortner. “It’s very frustrating because many of the amenities offered were the reason we chose to live in the establishment.”
When The Sentinel reached out to Stadium Village for comment, Vice President of Marketing Ryan Benefiel responded with clarification to the flier posted in the complex.
“The changes made to amenity hours were a direct response to the shooting,” Benefiel said. “We understand limited amenity hours may negatively impact some of our student residents for a brief period of time and apologize for any inconvenience. These changes are temporary and normal amenity hours will be reinstated at a later date.”
Students had mixed responses when asked if the shooting had changed how safe they felt on campus.
“I never felt in danger,” said sophomore Will Anderson. “I do not feel less safe, but I do think it is a reminder to the campus that these events unfortunately happen too often.”
Andrew Connard, a junior, was on the B.O.B. when the incident happened.
“The police were everywhere and they brought the dogs out,” Connard said. “All the crime in the area is getting to the point where we are afraid to wait at the bus stop. Every time a car or bus makes a loud popping noise, we duck for cover now. Something needs to be done.”
The shooting has brought an issue to light for the campus: the challenge of balancing our freedom and security. The differing responses to the opposite actions taken by KSU and Stadium Village show that the answer to that question is not cut and dry.
