The incident involving a Bradley student that resulted in a campus lockdown early Saturday morning has been reclassified as an aggravated assault. After the Bradley University Police Department conducted a more detailed interview, the alleged victim recalled the suspect pointed a handgun at him.
“The victim was driving down the alleyway and essentially drove past the three individuals and then parked,” Bradley University Police chief Brian Joschko said. “He was walking from his vehicle to his house and the individual approached him and displayed a handgun at him and the victim ran inside.”
The alleged victim made it inside the house safely and the suspect reason for pulling the gun is unknown
“As best as the victim could recall, the suspect didn’t demand any property or anything along those lines, but the victim is a little uncertain of what the guy’s intent was and then the guy pounded on the backdoor,” Joschko said.
BUPD described the male suspect as wearing a dark hoodie and brown pants. The other two individuals with him were also males and were also wearing dark clothing and one possibly wore a green sweatshirt.
BUPD exercised “extreme caution” and locked down the campus for 21 minutes.The initial BU foreWarn alert locking down campus was sent out at 2:22 a.m. on Saturday. An all-clear alert was sent at 2:43 a.m.
The investigation is continuing and anyone with information is encouraged to call BUPD or Peoria Police.
“We are still looking for video in the area and talking to other witnesses that saw the individuals in the area,” Joschko said.
