Gunman arrested on St. John's University campus

(AP) - A man with a rifle in a bag is in custody on theQueens campus of St. John's University Wednesday and no injuries werereported. Public safety officials disarmed the man and turned him over topolice,

News 12 Staff

Sep 27, 2007, 7:11 PM

Updated 6,202 days ago

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(AP) - A man with a rifle in a bag is in custody on theQueens campus of St. John's University Wednesday and no injuries werereported. Public safety officials disarmed the man and turned him over topolice, who are searching the campus' buildings and facilities. Law enforcement officials confirm the man they have in custody is Omesh Hiraman of Queens. They are looking, as a precaution, for anyone who may have been involved in the incident with Hiraman. St. John's is a Catholic university of about 20,000 studentswith three residential campuses in New York. The Queens campus, inthe Jamaica Estates section, is a traditional sprawling suburbancollege campus. Students were told stay inside their classrooms and buildingsuntil further notice. Classes on the Queens campus are canceledfor the evening. Kevin Su, a student on the Queens campus, said he wasnotified of the incident because of an emergency call system inplace at the school. Students received text and phone messagesbeginning around 2:30 p.m. Su said "almost everyone is on their cell phones callingparents, and letting friends know not to come to campus." Su said students were ushered into buildings that were staffedwith security guards and told to stay put. He said there wasn'tmuch discussion on whether there were similarities between theincident today and the April 16 rampage on the campus of VirginiaTech where a student gunman killed 32 people before killinghimself. He added "I think it's basically on everyone's mind. It doesn'tneed to be said."