Why did OSU just tell us to ‘fight’ a gunman?

At 5:41pm an Ohio State University campus text alert was issued to students reporting that a gunman had been seen at the Buckeye Village student residence hall located at 2724 Defiance Drive.

The alert in question instructed students to: “Run/Hide/Fight if necessary.”

Twelve minutes later, at 5:53pm, another alert was issued via the Ohio State Emergency Management Twitter account claiming officers were on scene, and that no signs of the gunman had been found.

A representative from the Ohio State University police department office confirmed that “Run/hide/fight if necessary,” is in fact, the policy for students when dealing with a situation such as this.

Being a student of the university, I cannot say what I am more disturbed by: the fact I am expected to “fight” an armed gunman? Or that I did not receive an alert of any kind, and was found out about the incident via Facebook?

Nearly an hour later, Ohio State Emergency Management tweeted that the original dispatch was reported as a man with a gun, but when officers responded, it was determined by speaking to the victim that the gun was only implied.

Chris Davey, spokesman for the university, stated that an armed robbery reportedly took place on the second floor of the complex’s community center.

The suspect is not believed to be on campus, nor have arrests been made. Police investigation is still ongoing.