A brother and sister’s quick thinking Friday morning led to the arrest of a student who fled from police and later said he had purchased firearms last week.
Marielle Costanza, a senior in Middle East studies, was sitting in class in the Social and Behavioral Science building when she made the connection that the student acting strangely in her class matched the description of a student police had been searching for that morning.
Her brother, David Costanza, who is a first-year student in the architecture program, told her that police were looking for a student who was acting suspiciously in the architecture building.
Marielle called police, who then arrested Lawrence Wright, a second-year architecture student.
Police were investigating Wright after he made death threats against fellow students and spray-painted the desk of another student who threatened to hurt an acquaintance of his, said Sgt. Capt. Lynn Mitchell of the U Police Department.
Police officers took Wright into custody, where he was questioned.
Police tried to attain a warrant to search Wright’s home. Mitchell said Wright had purchased firearms on Monday.
Fred Esplin, vice president for institutional advancement, declined to comment on whether Wright had been released Sunday night.
“When a student is being investigated for a crime, we don’t talk about the investigation until charges have been filed,” Esplin said.
Faculty told students in the College of Architecture and Planning that the building was going to close Thursday night. Sgt. Lynn Rohland of the U Police said the building was not locked down, but security had been increased because a student “was showing unusual behavior.”
Students then saw Wright on Friday morning circling the building, looking into windows and spray-painting a desk. Police were called in, but they lost him after a brief foot chase. Wright took refuge in a classroom in the Social and Behavioral Science building, where Marielle said he was trying to “blend in as a student.”
He is not enrolled in the class and had not been seen in any of his own in about a week, she said.
Marielle said she knew it was Wright because, although her class was about history in the Middle East, he continued to ask questions about architecture.
“He went from being a man that was possibly high to a man who was possibly confused to a student who was running away from police,” she said.
She then called police, who arrested Wright.
As an extra precaution, classes were cancelled on Friday, said Brenda Scheer, dean of the Graduate School of Architecture, in an e-mail to students in the program.
In addition, the building was closed for several hours on Friday night and for six hours on Saturday.
Capt. Mitchell said that to “alleviate any fears, extra police officers were going to be placed around the Social Behavioral area, but there shouldn’t be any problems.”
However, some students felt like more precautions should have been taken.
“When we heard that he might have been armed, you knew he could have got in the building and killed us,” said Jarman Montgomery, first-year student in the architecture program. “We’re feeling like we’re not safe but not in danger.”
Cody Storey, first-year architecture student, said students in the Fine Arts Building, which is connected to the Architecture Building, were unaware of the incident.
“If (the faculty) was going to keep us ignorant, they should also have kept us out of harm’s way,” Montgomery said.