An NYU student was shot at approximately 3:15 p.m. outside 5 MetroTech Center on the NYU Tandon School of Engineering campus. The victim, a Tandon sophomore, was wounded in the arm but remained conscious following the shooting. A spokesperson for the New York City Police Department confirmed the shooting.

An NYU Campus Safety officer said that the victim, whose arm was bloodied, entered the lobby of Rogers Hall at 6 MetroTech Center to ask for help. Medical personnel were immediately called to the scene and the student was taken away in an ambulance.

“He said he had been shot outside,” the security guard said. “I saw a bullet hole in his arm and it looked like it went in and out. There were supposedly four bullet cases.”

According to NYU Campus Safety, the suspect who fired the gunshots was part of a group of seven to eight teenagers, assumed to be between the ages of 14 and 19.

At 3:17 p.m., NYU Campus Safety alerted students in a text message to avoid the area around Rogers Hall due to “police activity.” 

While inside Rogers Hall and other Tandon buildings, many students reported hearing several loud banging noises. Tandon sophomore Noa Kirschbaum was in Jasper Kane Cafe when the shooting occurred.

“I heard four really really loud noises,” Kirschbaum said. “I wasn’t sure what they were at the time because I’ve never heard anything like that before. Everyone got up and started running to the windows.”

Kevin Hormaza, an employee at a Five Guys restaurant at 2 MetroTech, said the shooting caused confusion in nearby businesses. 

“People ran out of here, too,” Hormaza said. “We just saw everybody start running like roaches.”

Tandon sophomore David Lippincott was in his mechanics class nearby when the gunshots were fired.

“We heard a couple of gunshots from outside the window and a bunch of people screaming and looked outside and a bunch of people had dipped,” Lippincott said. “I didn’t really get to see much until after my class was over. But I came outside and they had this whole area taped off. I think that’s where someone got shot.”

Following the shooting, some professors resumed their classes as normal.

“My professor just kept on teaching,” Lippincott said. “He was like that’s a good segue to get to our talk on projectile motion. We didn’t know if it was actual gunshots or not. It’s scary — we know the kid from last year.”

Many professors teaching evening classes also informed their students that classes will not be canceled. One Citizen app user questioned NYU’s decision to resume classes and send students “back to the lecture.” In response, user @jdibarto — whom some students believed to be the Tandon Applied Physics Department Chair John Di Bartolo — replied “I don’t get it. What’s your point?”

Hallie Yee teaches forensic chemistry at the Urban Assembly School for Law and Justice, a small public high school just two blocks from where the shooting took place. Administrators at the high school announced a shelter-in-place order over the school intercom around 3 p.m., Yee wrote in a text message to WSN.

Yee said that teachers checked the Citizen app on their phones to try and figure out what was happening as sirens and movement were heard through open windows. They said students were restless, but not upset, after the lockdown kept them in the building for almost an hour after school ended.

Tandon students said they stayed away from windows and sheltered inside Roger Hall in the aftermath of the shooting. Campus Safety sent another text alert at 4:15 p.m. that the MetroTech area was clear to resume all activities. 

NYU spokesperson John Beckman published a statement about the shooting and expressed concern for the wellbeing of the injured student.

“The University is sending personnel to the hospital to offer support and has been in touch with the student’s family,” Beckman wrote. “The University is also concerned about the occurrence of a shooting so near one of our buildings. We will be talking with city law enforcement authorities about the episode and what can be done to enhance safety in the area.”

Ryan Kawahara and Alex Tey contributed reporting.

Contact Arnav Binaykia at [email protected], Rachel Cohen at [email protected], Rachel Fadem at [email protected] and Suhail Gharaibeh at [email protected].