'Pretty Terrifying': CU Students Express Shock After Being Asked To Evacuate During Matthew Harris SWAT Situation
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) - Students, parents and surrounding residents near Tuesday morning's standoff say they were met with both shock and confusion as SWAT teams attempted to contact suspect Matthew Harris. Residents told CBS4 they were awoken by police evacuating the building they lived in, Plaza on Broadway, and after that were largely left in the dark until an arrest was made.
"We woke up to what sounded like police on a megaphone telling someone to answer their cellphone, they wanted to resolve this safely," one resident told CBS4.
"I got a banging on the front door of our apartment building telling us to evacuate," said Arielle Avramovitz, a CU Boulder student and resident of the complex. "There were police officers in helmets, vests. The full thing."
Other than the initial contact, residents said they were not told what was going on in their complex. Many left their apartments and went to class. The City of Boulder sent out a reverse 911 message to some in the area of 955 Broadway telling them to shelter in place. Others, including a nearby elementary school, were evacuated.
Suspect Matthew Harris was barricaded inside the complex. Police say he was connected to the recent threats at the UCLA campus which forced the California university to close campus.
"It was kind of scary not knowing what was going on," Avramovitz told CBS4's Dillon Thomas.
Many CU Boulder students claimed they were left in the dark for hours, especially given that the standoff was taking place literally across the street from the campus. A university spokesperson says the school sent out a campus-wide notice about a half-hour after Boulder police tweeted about the incident.
"I saw all the cop cars and I saw someone had posted something on Twitter that something was going on," said Leah Lawson, a resident in the complex and CU Boulder student.
Lawson and Avramovitz said they were not updated on the nature of the situation until they saw media reports online.
Those who live in the complex told CBS4 they didn't know Harris and had never seen him before. Police said Harris was a former educator at UCLA and had sent an 800-page manifesto peppered with threats to the UCLA Police Department.
Harris was arrested in Boulder after several hours.
The Plaza on Broadway shows online that it is student housing. According to CU Boulder, records indicate no student or employee relationship with Harris.
"We've never personally seen him," Avramovitz said. "To hear something happening like that in our apartment building... it was pretty terrifying."
