University of Wisconsin and Madison police spent nearly all afternoon and evening Tuesday searching the west side of campus for a 19-year-old inmate with a history of mental problems, who claimed he was armed and wanted to be killed by police.
However, at 11 p.m. Tuesday night, police deemed suspect Jesse A. Miller a threat to himself and not the university or the community. Miller - who police think lives in Madison and is not a college student - remained on the loose, as of press time.
Still, despite police believing Miller to be somewhere in the campus area, UW officials said the university should go about business as usual today and that the suspect's actions are a cry for help.""
""We strongly feel campus is safe for normal work and classes [today],"" said John Lucas, a University spokesperson.
The chaos that put some university buildings on lockdown and the community on edge began late Tuesday afternoon.
According to Dale Burke, UW Police Department assistant chief, a call was received by the Dane County Crisis Center around 4:40 p.m. from Miller.
Burke said the crisis center conveyed to police the message that Miller was on top of a parking ramp at UW Hospital and should be considered dangerous.
""We were informed that this young man was suicidal, that he possessed a weapon and that he wanted to be killed by a police officer,"" Burke said at a briefing, just hours after the reported incident.
UW Hospital was then immediately put on lockdown. Both UWPD and Madison police officers rushed to the scene but found nothing. Burke said the threat was taken seriously because Miller has a long history with violence and mental illness.
According to Wisconsin court records, Miller was found guilty of armed robbery in June 2006 and sentenced to one year in jail with release pending the completion of a teen rehab program.
However, Miller did not complete the program, and in April 2007 was ordered to Dane County Jail. During this sentence, he was on a Huber work release program that allowed him to leave throughout the day.
Yet, Burke said Miller left for a doctor's appointment on Sept. 8 and was not heard from until Tuesday when he was suspected to have contacted the crisis center.
But police have reason to believe Miller made more than one call yesterday.
Burke said as police tried to get a handle on the situation at the hospital, Dane County 9-1-1 services received a call from an unknown person who said ""shots had been fired near the intersection of University and Highland and that people were fleeing in all directions.""
However, Burke said police heard no gun shots and saw no frenzied people. They then deduced that the call was untrue and deemed Miller the suspected culprit.
Soon thereafter, a third call was received. Burke said this time it was a ""security guard"" who called 9-1-1, and told dispatch he heard about a bomb threat at UW Hospital. Dispatch investigated the name of the ""security guard"" who called in and found that he was non-existent.
Once again, Burke said police suspected Miller to be the informant. He said the phone calls were traced immediately but could not comment on their impact in the investigation.
A campus-wide e-mail was sent out to UW students and faculty shortly after the third call. It warned them about the ""potentially dangerous situation"" on the west side of campus and urged everyone to stay indoors. Burke said buildings near UW Hospital facilities were cleared and the hospital was back to normal by 7 p.m.
Police also encouraged students who live off-campus to take local cabs free of charge which the university will compensate the cab companies for later.
Burke said the mass e-mails were indicative of the university's new safety policies, which were developed shortly after the Virginia Tech massacre. He said a lesson was learned the day that happened and as unfortunate as it was, UW's heightened security was a product of the lesson.
""We had different work groups here on this campus that looked into that... and said 'is what we're doing [the best we can do]
