Gun scare defused at Cal State Dominguez Hills

An ROTC student carrying a nonfunctioning rifle on the campus of Cal State Dominguez Hills in Carson prompted a large police response after students reported that they had seen a man carrying what appeared to be an assault rifle on school grounds, authorities said today.

Alarm about a possible gunman at the school lasted for about 45 minutes this morning as school officials went into lockdown and Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies searched for a person matching the description given them by witnesses.

Shortly after 9 a.m., authorities determined that Reserve Officer Training Corps students preparing for a drill had been carrying rifles that pose no threat, sheriff’s officials said. Such weapons are real firearms but have been disabled so they can not fire live rounds, said Sgt. Larry Thompson with the Carson sheriff’s station.

“ROTC was doing a drill and apparently they didn’t notify campus police,” said Thompson, who added that one student was detained and questioned, but no arrest was made.

The false alarm “was good training for us,” he said.

Of the misunderstanding, Thompson said: “I would hope that if they were smart enough they would notify somebody on campus that they were bringing simulated weapons on campus for training.”

An Internet notice announcing that the Carson campus was locked down and classes canceled was quickly replaced by a new notice this morning saying that the campus was reopened.

“It has been determined there is no longer a threat on campus,” the notification said.

A news item on the site said “a witness claimed to see a man walking around campus with an automatic weapon and [ammunition] canisteres [sic] around his waist. A suspect was been detained who turned out to be an ROTC student with a drill rifle. The campus was put under lockdown which has since been lifted.”

Concern about a possible armed man at the school came after a string of campus shootings nationwide, most recently the deaths of six, including the gunman, at Northern Illinois University near Chicago.

susannah.rosenblatt@latimes.com

andrew.blankstein@latimes.com