A report of a person with a gun on campus put San Jose City College on lockdown for more than three hours Tuesday night.
The report came in at 4:30 p.m. Police said it came from a single individual who said he saw a person carrying what looked like a gun on campus.
They gave the all clear alert just before 8 p.m. No gunman was ever found; nor was the person who called in the original report, according to police.
City College is on Moorepark Avenue near Bascom and Fruitvale in San Jose right off of Interstate 280.
The NBC Bay Area helicopter showed a dark campus around 5:30 p.m. There were no students seen walking around, only police.
College Chancellor Rita Cepeda told NBC Bay Area that police were able to focus their search almost immediately to two buildings: the Science Building and the Technology Center. In the end the focus was on the Tech Center. It took more than three hours for police to clear the four story building floor by floor.
The rest of the campus was evacuated and classes canceled in the 5 p.m. hour, but the students in the Technology Center were kept on lock down for more than three hours.
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There were never any reports of gunfire, police said.
San Jose City College police said they called in San Jose police officers to help them search the campus.
In their last press release of the evening, San Jose police said the reports of a gunman on campus were "unfounded." Adding, "the original source of the information is unknown and could not be identified."
In an earlier release, San Jose police stated, "All the information provided to our 911 call center has been third hand information and we have not made contact with anyone who has confirmed seeing a gunman."
A student who identified himself as Lotus Curry told NBC Bay Area that this the second time in recent days where the school has been placed on lockdown. He said earlier there was a report of a person with a knife on campus that sparked another lockdown. Lotus said that police were on campus walking around with rifles Tuesday night.
He said he was with about 30 other students and staff behind a locked door with the lights off in his class. This was finals week at the school.
It was not immediately clear if the initial call was a prank or if someone mistook something they saw on campus.
Cepeda said the campus police force had just completed "active shooter training" so they were very prepared to respond to the report. She said during the 6 p.m. newscast if nothing as found, classes would resume as usual Wednesday.
