Penn’s Division of Public Safety relies on the UPennAlert Emergency Notification System to “quickly notify the Penn and surrounding Philadelphia community of critical information during significant emergencies or dangerous situations.” But on Saturday, the University remained silent as false reports of a gunman near Harrison College House circulated among the student body.
Rumors about the Jan. 31 incident proliferated online after notifications from Citizen — a user crime-reporting app — alleged that shots had been fired on the west side of Penn's campus. In the days that followed, The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke to students about how the lack of clear communication left them “confused" and “afraid.”
According to Philadelphia Police Department scanner audio reviewed by the DP, police were notified at 1:54 p.m. on Jan. 31 of a white male wearing a black jacket “possibly walking with a firearm."
At 2:03 p.m., police were notified again by a woman who saw a man with a weapon walking in the area of Harrison and Penn's Zeta Beta Tau fraternity and “heard the gunshots.”
The caller, according to the audio, “left the scene because she said she was scared.”
Roughly a minute after the report, police discussed the possibility of placing the buildings in the area “on lockdown."
Only a few minutes later — around 2:08 p.m. — a speaker on the audio stated it “appeared [the noise] might have been firecrackers.” Another voice on the police scanner concurred that the noise was “supposedly a firecracker.”
A Division of Public Safety spokesperson declined multiple requests for comment.
A first-year student — who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation — the first-year recalled that the moment she first received a text about “an active shooter in Harrison.”
“Immediately, I freeze," the first-year said. “I texted my mom, I texted other people ... No one responded. Then I started getting texts from other friends saying there was a shooting in Harrison.”
The first-year remembered that they were “just really scared.”
“I texted a few of my friends — who live in the dorm — to check that they're okay. I was waiting for a Penn notification, if I'm being honest,” the student said.
When College sophomore and Harrison resident Carolina Rohm first learned of the reports from her friends in the early afternoon, she “didn't know” if she “could leave the building or not.”
“I didn't know if it was clear,” Rohm said. “I didn't know if it was even happening. I feel like the lack of information just made students a lot more scared because then people resorted to things like SideChat, where there was just a lot of misinformation.”
Alongside other Penn students, Rohm monitored the anonymous forum for real-time developments on the situation.
In December 2025, a shooting at Brown University led to the deaths of two individuals and injured nine others. Penn President Larry Jameson addressed the active-shooter incident in an email to the University community. At the time, the Division of Public Safety told the DP that the University increased police presence on campus and was “actively monitoring” the situation.
During the active-shooter incident at Brown, the Boston Globe reported that students turned to Sidechat as their first source of information.
According to Rohm — who was at her Harrison dorm room when she learned of the incident — there was no information on whether the gunman was inside or outside the building, causing her and her friends distress.
“I never received anything official from the University saying that there was a gunman or that it was safe,” Rohm said. “We didn’t get anything saying that there wasn’t a threat, we didn’t get anything saying that there was, so we didn’t really know what to expect, or if it was clear to go outside.”
Another Harrison resident — who also requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation — voiced similar feelings of confusion in a statement to the DP.
"I was at Pottruck when my RA texted me about a possible threat, which immediately made me scared and unsure whether it was safe to return to Harrison,” they wrote. “My RA was really responsive and advised me not to come back right away, which I appreciated, but Penn’s messaging felt vague and confusing.”
The Harrison resident added that the lack of “clear UPennAlert msg or safety guidance” meant “news spread quickly without concrete details, which added to the panic.”
Rohm echoed the sentiment, stating that if campus police are “investigating something,” students “should know whether or not there’s an actual active threat.” She added that if “enough people thought that there was a threat to call the police,” students should "be aware that's happening and also know to be cautious.”
“We thought that it was going on for 20 minutes before someone messaged, saying that it was fireworks,” Rohm added. “But again, they only found out it was fireworks from the Citizen app, not from people, not from Penn.”
As students were “left confused and afraid,” the Harrison resident said that they “wish[ed] Penn had handled communication better and provided clearer, more timely information.”
The first student added that amid a public safety concern — “especially after the Brown shooting — the University has a responsibility to be “very proactive in all of its communication.”
“I'm disappointed,” the first-year student continued. “Given that a peer institution just went through a horrible tragedy. I feel like Penn needed to say something immediately.”
Staff reporter Luke Petersen covers national politics and can be reached at petersen@thedp.com. At Penn, he studies philosophy, politics, and economics. Follow him on X @LukePetersen06.
