Police: It was a pellet rifle

UCI police have concluded that the reportedly armed and camouflaged man whom they sought Wednesday afternoon was actually a student headed to an airsoft game.

About 1:30 p.m., police received a call from a concerned student that there was a man, described as 6-feet, 180 pounds with blond hair wearing camouflage and Army-style boots, roaming the campus armed with what the student thought was a real rifle.

University officials sent out a “Zot Alert” — the school’s electronic emergency notification system — to an estimated 20,000 students and faculty members describing the man and urging anyone who sees him to call 911, officials said.

Soon after the alert went out, police received a call about the man wearing camouflage at the Student Center, witnesses said. Police shut down the center and detained the man, but later released him after they learned he was not their suspect.

A second call came in from a student, this one claiming they knew who this “gunman” was, said Lt. Balthazar de la Riva. The student reported that the gunman was likely his friend, who matched the suspect’s description and was headed off to a tournament and was carrying his airsoft gun, said university spokesman Tom Vasich.

It is not against university rules to carry an airsoft or paint-ball gun on campus, Vasich said.

With a helicopter circling overhead, and university and Irvine police on campus searching for the man, students seemed unaware, or unconcerned about the potential danger before details became clear as a potential mix-up.

“It seems kind of unbelievable,” said freshman Chris Carson. “It’s probably some kind of misunderstanding.”

“I didn’t think it was a legitimate issue,” said Erik Sjoman, a 19-year-old freshman.

“I thought it was just someone who had misunderstood something. I didn’t think it was likely” a person with a gun, he said.

The student was seen near Mesa Court Housing near the Bren Events Center. Campus officials issued a voluntary lockdown of the area, but most on campus continued their leisurely pace through the grounds. University police credit the school’s Zot Alerts — which students voluntarily sign up for — as spreading the news of the potential danger fast; and for ultimately determining who it was.