Wick man caught up in Bronx shootnig
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A WICK man who was caught up in an American college shooting has spoken about the dramatic incident, which left a student injured.
Ian Scott, an internationally-respected artist who lectures part-time at Hostos Community College in the Bronx area of New York, had just entered the building when he heard shots outside the front door.
He said: "I must admit, I did not take it at all seriously until a police chief came storming out of his office in a bullet-proof vest with his gun drawn. His reactions were astonishingly quick and immediately reinforced the severity of the situation."
Mr Scott and a Chinese student waited behind a wall while police and Hostos Campus Security went outside to defuse the situation.
One of the students, a 17-year-old, was hit in the calf but his injury was not serious.
"Four bullets were fired rapidly from a semi-automatic pistol, the last few spraying wildly around the front of the college," said Mr Scott.
"A cleaner was standing outside and now has three holes in his shirt where the bullets passed through without touching him. I talked to him after the event, which happened on April 20.
"He was still in a mixture of shock and relief a week after. It’s a miracle he emerged unscathed."
Mr Scott added: "The incident began and was over in seconds. I have to say there was a strange calm throughout the college. It’s a big place with over 7000 students so many people were completely unaware of what was happening at the front door."
Once the shooting was over Mr Scott went to see friends in other parts of the college to tell them what had happened.
"It was more to defuse my own emotions than anything else. It was the first time I’d witnessed anything like that and the immediate response was to talk about the experience with buddies," he said.
The gunman escaped and Mr Scott said he did not know if he had been caught yet.
According to the police, the shooting involved "a number of unknown high-school-aged youths" who had no connection to Hostos Community College.
"The shooters were probably not strongly gang-affiliated," explained Mr Scott.
"They possibly do not even own the pistol used but obtained a communally-used one by paying a rental fee and getting a key to the secret location (usually an apartment letter box) where the gun is stored.
"The ownership of guns is strictly controlled in New York and illegal possession could result in a possible prison sentence."
The artist said there had been four such shootings in the Bronx in the past seven years with one resulting in a death, but he stressed that in the 1970s and ’80s such events were a daily occurrence.
"The situation has changed dramatically for the better," he said. "Thankfully, most of these incidents occur in the middle of the night and I have been totally oblivious to all of them.
"The one that occurred as I was entering the college brought the reality home to me."
Mr Scott added that every school in the USA had its own private police who are affiliated to the main police force.
"Hostos College is no exception and has a large police force called ‘peace officers’ whose job is to maintain internal and external security throughout the sprawling campus," he said.
"They are on call 24/7 and I’ve found them to be a splendid group of diverse individuals who are friendly, intelligent and helpful."
