As the University’s Department of Public Safety continues to gather information about an alleged man who pointed a gun at a University employee early yesterday morning in the Chemistry Building, there is confusion about why an emergency e-mail alert was not sent to the University community immediately after DPS was informed of the situation.

Those who did receive a notification early yesterday morning at about 1 a.m. were students and staff members who had registered to receive emergency alerts. These members of the University community received text messages and phone voice alerts. But everyone affiliated with the University wasn't informed of the situation until DPS sent a crime alert via e-mail yesterday morning at about 10:30 a.m.

According to the crime alert, a University employee saw a man sitting on a ledge in the Chemistry Building atrium. The man was “pointing a small, black handgun” at the female employee, who proceeded to walk away, the crime alert stated. The man was no longer in the area when the woman went back several minutes later.

University President Mary Sue Coleman said in an interview with The Michigan Daily yesterday that she believes the e-mail emergency alert system failed.

“Apparently the text system worked. The e-mail didn’t,” Coleman said. “I was told there was some glitch in that system.”

DPS spokeswoman Diane Brown said in an interview yesterday that the technical system wasn’t broken but that she decided not to send out an emergency alert e-mail since DPS was nearing an “all clear” of the area.

“The e-mail portion (of the emergency alert) wasn’t activated (Sunday) night because by the time I got to that point in the evening, we were finding out that it was close to being ‘all clear’ and (officers) hadn’t found anybody, so there wasn’t much point in activating the e-mail,” Brown said.

The emergency alert sent out via text and phone messages at about 1 a.m. Monday stated that a man with a gun was reported to have been in the Chemistry Building at midnight. The alert urged people to stay away from the building and for people in the building to take shelter. At 1:25 a.m., another emergency alert via text and voice recording gave an “all clear” and stated that “no problems were found.”

However, neither of the emergency alerts were sent via e-mail — they were only sent via text and phone messages.

Brown said emergency alerts are intended to inform people to “take immediate action for their safety,” while crime alerts are for less urgent messages.

Brown also said some concern has been raised about the apparent delay in issuing the emergency alert text messages and phone calls. DPS officers were aware of the situation at around midnight, but the emergency alerts weren’t sent until 1 a.m.

“We do the best we can as the events unfold with the information that we have and the system available to us,” Brown said. “We didn’t have solid enough information at midnight to warrant activating the emergency alert.”

The witness wasn’t entirely sure the gun was real, Brown said, adding that the witness originally described it as a BB gun.

After the employee reported the incident, Brown said DPS sent all available officers to the Chemistry Building and notified the Ann Arbor Police Department, which also sent officers to the scene to surround the building. DPS officers then swept the building to search for the trespasser and to tell students and employees who were in the building to either hide or leave, depending on their proximity to doorways, according to Brown.

Though officers were stationed at the building’s doorways, the suspect had likely exited the building prior to the officers’ arrival, Brown said. She added that there were a few minutes of delay between the sighting of the suspect and the call to DPS.

Coleman said she is satisfied with the way DPS handled the situation, but said the University must continue to keep campus safety a top priority.