Less than a week after five students were killed at Northern Illinois University, an SFCC student pointed a gun at another student on the college's campus Tuesday, sparking a five-hour manhunt that ended in a peaceful arrest.
The search involved 70 local law enforcement officers and ended with the arrest of 21-year-old Talon Deante Jackson.
Police began looking for Jackson around noon after witnesses reported seeing him point a gun at another student inside the SFCC food court, said Art Forgey of the Alachua County Sheriff's Office.
Witnesses told police the two students had been in a prior confrontation.
After learning of the threat, campus administration and law enforcement decided the best response would be to call for additional police help instead of lock down the campus.
"It comes down to a judgment call," Larry Keen, SFCC spokesman, later said. "All the information led us to believe that overwhelming police presence would do the trick."
Around 2 p.m. SFCC administrators sent out an e-mail informing students, faculty and staff of the incident and urging them "to exercise caution."
Thirty minutes later, another e-mail was sent instructing them to remain indoors until police finished searching the campus.
The administration called students and employees to alert them.
Meanwhile, officers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Gainesville Police Department, the Alachua County Sheriff's Office, the SFCC Police Department and the University of Florida Police Department went from building to building with shields and body armor to look for the suspect, Forgey said.
Periodically, they called Gov. Charlie Crist's office to update him.
After using SWAT teams, canine units and a helicopter, police announced around 5 p.m. that the campus had been completely searched and that the suspect was no longer on the premises.
Shortly thereafter, police announced that they had apprehended Jackson at Melrose Apartments, located at 1000 SW 62nd Blvd. He was charged with one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of possession of a weapon on a school campus.
Both are felonies.
Police said he turned himself over voluntarily, and his bond was set at $800,000.
Tuesday's incident came a little more than a week after Jackson, who is originally from Miami, was arrested on UF's campus for hitting his fiancee.
Keen estimated that there were between 8,000 and 9,000 students on campus at the time the gun was displayed.
Everyone was evacuated without incident, though some said they did not receive e-mail warnings and others were upset that the school's emergency text-message system, which is still in its prototype phase, was not used.
Rachel Friedlander, an 18-year-old SFCC student, was in a communications class when her teacher told her the news.
"He just said, 'There's a gunman on campus,'" Friedlander said. "Then we continued class."
She said that while several of her classmates "were freaking out," she was not concerned.
Kimberly Wootton, a UF political science junior, said while the gunman was across town, the incident still made her nervous.
"It could happen anywhere," Wootton said. "I mean, literally anywhere. Virginia Tech. Illinois. University of Florida."
The SFCC campus reopened for classes at 7 p.m.
Maj. Tom Terry of the SFCC Police Department said at the end of the day he was satisfied with the way law enforcement handled the scare.
Still, Terry said, the administration would meet with police to discuss areas they could improve in case of a future threat.
"When you think about it, we had an active person with a gun on campus," he said. "We have no injuries and we have a successful apprehension of the subject," he said.
"Can't get much better than that."
Alligator writer Katie Gallagher contributed to this report.
