Cam­pus Safety Ad­dresses Po­lice Ac­tiv­ity Near Bethel’s Cam­pus

MISHAWAKA— On Sat­ur­day, Jan. 22, stu­dents re­ceived an alert at 9:23 p.m. in­struct­ing them to find and stay in a se­cure place. Cam­pus Safety sent out this alert in re­sponse to po­lice ac­tiv­ity oc­cur­ring near cam­pus. 

The alert came be­cause of an in­ci­dent that oc­curred be­tween the po­lice and a sus­pect. Paul Neel, di­rec­tor of Cam­pus Safety, ex­plained that the po­lice were pur­su­ing a man in their ve­hi­cles un­til the man ex­ited his ve­hi­cle. The po­lice no­ti­fied cam­pus safety shortly af­ter, as the sus­pect ex­ited his ve­hi­cle near cam­pus. Neel ex­plained that there was no con­fir­ma­tion that the man ever made it to cam­pus. 

Cam­pus safety acted quickly, se­cur­ing all build­ings and mak­ing sure all stu­dents re­ceived the alert. The po­lice searched Bethel’s cam­pus but found no sign of the sus­pect.  

Neel ex­pressed his ap­pre­ci­a­tion to the stu­dents for re­spond­ing well to the alert and stay­ing in a se­cured lo­ca­tion.  

Stu­dents should re­port any sus­pi­cious ac­tiv­ity that they see on cam­pus. They can call Cam­pus Safety any­time at 574-807-7500, and they can call or text 574-292-8100 to reach Cam­pus Safety as well.  

Neel ex­plained that stu­dents can reach out for any ac­tiv­ity that they may be­lieve does not seem right. He ex­pressed that it is al­ways bet­ter to have Cam­pus Safety check some­thing out when stu­dents may feel un­easy about some­thing on cam­pus than to say noth­ing at all.