On the night of Aug. 21, 2022, Warwick River Hall residents were rushed out of their building by the fire alarm at 9:45pm. All of the students gathered in the parking lot waiting for further instructions on when they could return to their rooms. With CNU PD quick to the scene, the students began to realize that this was more than just a drill. After about twenty minutes of standing around, still unsure of what was going on, the students were ordered to move to the Freeman Center and wait for further instruction. Resident Assistants informed their residents that if they had not gone to the Freeman Center, then they should be as far away from Warwick River Hall as possible – at this moment, the Residence Life Association is not permitted to speak with any news outlets. 

At 11:00pm the police and K-9 unit had finished searching the building and gave the all clear for students to return. Many students however, still felt unsafe being in the building with the little information they were given. 

Sophomore, Rachel Freeman, said, “My friends and I were aware that the threat was still an open investigation, which made us feel unsafe sleeping in our rooms in Warwick. We weren’t given any information, so we ended up sleeping in a friend’s room in a different building; wasn’t a great night’s sleep before the first day of classes.” 

After speaking with CNU PD and Vice President of Student Affairs, Kevin Hughes, The Captain’s Log received an official statement from Dean Hughes on behalf of the university:

“In recent weeks, there have been an increased number of bomb threats to colleges and universities across the country; that includes institutions in Virginia.  Newport News police notified University police of a threat to one of our residence halls.  University police evacuated the building immediately and brought in necessary resources to thoroughly check the facility; no devices were found.  Students then returned to their residence hall.”

The CNU PD Crime and Fire Log is the only source where the bomb threat is documented. Readers can see that the “bomb threat and ransom demand” were called in at 9:12pm. Warwick River residents’ snapchats from that night, document the fire alarms going off at exactly 9:45pm. There are questions that still remain unanswered: why did it take so long to evacuate the building? If the university police knew about the threat, why were students allowed to remain so close to the building for twenty minutes after being evacuated? 

In a follow up email to Dean Hughes he was asked to define what he meant by “necessary resources,” as well as “Why did it take as long as it did to move students farther away from the building?” However, The Captain’s Log did not receive a response in time for print.