The St. Thomas More Catholic Student Mission at the University of South Carolina had tables set up for their 6 p.m. Welcome Back Cookout Sunday night. They sat abandoned less than an hour after it started.
The Mission is on Greene Street with a chapel around the corner, about a block away from Thomas Cooper Library. At 6:34 p.m., campus police sent out a Carolina Alert to students that an active shooter was suspected to be at the library.
While the university would later report around 7:15 p.m. that there was “no evidence” of an active shooter and issue an “all clear” at 8:05 p.m., later confirming the threats as a hoax, the scare caused a panic around campus. A multitude of police and public safety workers responded. Students ran and hid, some barricading themselves in place. Two students incurred minor injuries during the evacuation of the library, the university reported…