Major police presence in Oxford for 'active event' April 15
A strong police presence is responding to an "active event" at an apartment complex near Locust and High Street in Oxford.
Editor's Note: Our live coverage of this event, produced with The Miami Student reporter Taylor Stumbaugh, has concluded. For a full update, read our follow-up coverage here.
Dozens of emergency response vehicles including a SWAT team responded to an active event at an apartment complex near the intersection of Locust and High Streets in Oxford in the evening April 15.
A large bang could be heard at 8:47 p.m. which sent a crowd of students who had gathered running. Three additional loud bangs were heard near the scene at 9:14 p.m.
At 9:25 p.m., eyewitnesses near the scene confirmed to a reporter with The Miami Student that they saw a man taken out of the apartment complex. The man was handcuffed and then put on a stretcher, the witnesses said. Loud cheers could be heard in the area at the same time.
Bystanders saw a man being put into an ambulance on a stretcher. First responders on the scene would not take questions.
At 9:45 p.m., an emergency alert text to Miami students confirmed that the police activity had concluded.
During the event, a first responder speaking into a megaphone could be heard instructing a person in an apartment building to come out. First responders on the scene told the Oxford Free Press that responders had "rifles drawn." A considerable crowd had gathered at the scene by 8:30 p.m. despite emergency messages warning Miami University students to avoid the area.
The first responders on the scene included the Oxford Fire Department, Oxford Police Department, Butler County Sheriffs Office and more. The Oxford Free Press could not immediately confirm the cause of the situation.
A dispatcher at the OPD Station confirmed to the Free Press at 9:10 p.m. that the department would not comment on the situation while it was ongoing.
Leane Kinney, a senior marketing and entrepreneurship major who lives in a property near the apartment complex, said the police presence began showing up around 6 p.m. She and her roommates had been watching from the front porch since the event began. Kinney and others nearby were unsure of what the situation was because of multiple rumors.
No police told Kinney or her housemates directly that they needed to stay inside, she said.
"It was really scary at first because they just kept pulling out guns and things," Kinney said, "and they weren't telling us anything at all."
According to posts on social media, residents of the apartment complex at the intersection of Locust and High Streets had been instructed not to leave their units.
The Oxford Free Press has reached out to the Oxford Police Department.
