If you were attending Wellness this afternoon, you might have gotten an exciting show when a mysterious flag wielding man began running around campus.
At around 1 p.m. on Wednesday, students at Loyola Marymount University received a series of texts detailing police activity on campus near Whelan Lane and then in Sunken Gardens. Ignoring the advice to avoid the area, many headed to Sunken to witness the commotion.
The man, around 40 years old, wore all black and swung around an American Flag while evading Public Safety. Crowds of people in and around Sunken Gardens watched as Public Safety tried to calm him down.
One student, Victoria Pusic, thought this “guy’s definitely on drugs because he was talking about stuff that really didn’t make any sense… He wanted to fight the PSafe Officer.”
While another student, Isabella Madrid, said, “He was trying to teach the officer how to fight.” While also explaining “He was not aggressive at all.”
Although not yet verified, rumors have begun swirling that the man was also carrying a knife after an anonymous Fizz post warned students to “steer clear of the scary man walking toward Kikka he has a knife and American Flag.”
Update: LMU Public Safety explained “Officers operated according to protocol, de-escalated the situation, alerted LAPD, and sent an immediate LMU Alert, notifying the larger LMU community to avoid the area until a follow-up all-clear was given.”
