St. John's News

Excerpts from a press conference by Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, Thursday, September 27, 2007

The remarkable events that unfolded at St. John’s University yesterday came to a successful, peaceful close thanks to the combined efforts of the Police Department and St. John’s security personnel, as well as the quick thinking and actions of Cadet Benson.

The events at St. John’s also highlighted the longstanding working partnership between St. John’s University and the NYPD. Tom Lawrence, the Vice President for Security at St. John’s, is a former Deputy Chief of this Department.

He did an outstanding job yesterday.

The University’s response yesterday serves as a national model.

Coincidentally, St. John’s was one of the participants in our campus security conference last week, during which we examined the emergency response at Virginia Tech, and other campuses.

Until we determined that the initial report of a second suspect at St. John’s was erroneous, the Police Department and St. John’s security conducted a building-by-building search.

As you know, St. John’s newly instituted emergency text messaging system worked like a charm.

In fact, Cadet Benson received the message that there was an armed man on campus while he was still struggling with the suspect.

No one wants to go through the frightening experience that occurred at St. John’s.

However, if it does happen…this is the best outcome possible.

No one was injured. And the emergency response both by the Police and the University was flawless.