Arrest made for guns on Danville Community College campus

Media General News Service
Published: October 13, 2008

6:00 p.m.

BY SARAH ARKIN
Danville Register & Bee staff writer

Danville Community College officials and local authorities credit good communication and proper training for averting a disastrous morning Monday after a female student spotted a class-mate on the college’s campus with a gun.

Danville police arrested Bruce Wayne Elder, 18, of Danville, on Monday morning and charged him with two counts of felony possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and underage posses-sion of alcohol.

At about 8:15 a.m. Monday, a female student spotted a fellow student holding a gun, transfer-ring it from his backpack to somewhere else on his body before entering an academic building, DCC President Carlyle Ramsey said. After she quickly notified officials, campus staff and Dan-ville police quickly placed the school on lockdown, he said.

After the female student said that she had seen the other student enter the Temple Building with a gun, he went into a classroom, Ramsey said. After campus security officials confronted him, he tried to escape, the college president said.

Campus security followed the student and sort of cornered him in a part of campus, Ramsey said, adding Danville police then arrested him.

The whole school was on lockdown within about 20 minutes of the initial report, he said.

Lt. Mike Mondul, spokesman for the police department, credited “good communication” for the ability of campus staff and officers to safely resolve the situation.

“It all comes back to a good witness,” he said.

Mondul said the witness’ action led to the chain reaction of immediate notification, a quick lockdown of all the buildings on campus and a timely response by the police department.

Ramsey agreed.  “The technology worked exceedingly well, but it was really the good judgment and poise of sev-eral people and the person who spotted this individual,” he said.

Ramsey said Scott Barnes, vice president of financial and administrative services, “very, very quickly” called him and told him that officials were “reasonably certain” the suspect had a gun.

The school immediately activated the different systems in place to alert everyone on campus of the situation and to manually lock down all the buildings, Ramsey said.

The alert system works through a couple different paths: all computer screens are wired to go into “alert mode,” meaning the screens will flash and a sound system will activate. Flat screens located throughout campus also are hooked up to the system.

Following the tragedy of the Virginia Tech massacre in April 2006, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine urged schools to ramp up their security and communications systems.

Barnes said since the 2006-2007 school year, DCC has spent more than $150,000 for security equipment, including radios, cameras and various notification systems. In addition, DCC staff members have voluntarily spent hours training for emergency response.

Ramsey said that DCC was one of the first colleges in the state to implement community re-sponse training.

“I think we’ve all learned from the Virginia Tech tragedy,” Mondul said. “Those things, as tragic as they are, we use them as a learning point and we hope they never happen again.”
Court records show Elder has been convicted of a number of crimes, including grand larceny and ID theft.

Contact Sarah Arkin at or (434) 791-7983.

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2:47 p.m.

Read the news release below from Danville Police

Police have charged Bruce Wayne Elder age 18 of Danville with two counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of alcohol while underage.

Elder is a student at DCC and attended classes this morning.

He is currently being held in the Danville City Jail under no bond. The investigation is ongoing.

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10:22 a.m.

Read the news release below from Danville Police

At approximately 8:15 a.m. this morning, Danville Police responded to Danville Community College for an incident involving a subject with a firearm on the campus.

The man was identified by name and fled the campus. Danville Community College immediately locked the campus down.

The caller gave police a clothing description, and police quickly located the subject nearby on Kemper Road.

The situation is under control at this time, and two weapons have been recovered. The suspect is in custody and charges are pending.

Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact Danville Crimestoppers at (434) 793-0000, or via our crime tips line on your computer at . Information given will remain confidential.

Citizens who contact Crimestoppers by telephone can are eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000.00.