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Wilkes University Buildings Shot with Pellet Gun

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Campus security at Wilkes University says someone fired pellet guns at two buildings. Three windows were found with damage, and one of...

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. -- Campus security at Wilkes University says someone fired pellet guns at two buildings.

Three windows were found with damage, and one of the shots was fired when a student was in a classroom.

The first incident was on November 12, when a student heard a bang on the window. Campus security says it is stepping up its vigilance after that student reported a pellet gun was shot at window of a classroom in the Cohen Science Center.

"About 8 o'clock at night, a student said that he heard a loud bang, about an hour prior to, so about 7 o'clock in the evening, heard what sounded like a loud bang. He looked up, didn't see anything. He left, came back, and he saw the window had been shattered," said Chief Chris Jagoe, Wilkes University Public Safety. "It's a two-paned window, so it broke one side of the window, but nothing made entry into the building."

Since then, Chief Jagoe has directed his campus security officers to check other windows for pellet gun damage.

Officers found damage on two other windows: one at the Cohen Science Center and one the Stark Learning Center.

Both buildings are located on South River Street in Wilkes-Barre.

It's not clear when the damage was done.

"Obviously that's not very comforting. That's surprising that anything like that would happen here and given all the other school shootings, I guess it is a little bit concerning," said junior Dana Saliyev.

Campus security is also asking students at Wilkes to look out for anything suspicious, saying there are numerous ways to report it to officers anonymously.

One of those ways is a free cell phone app called Wilkes Shield that links students to campus police.

"You can report in real time, things that you observe. You can take videos. You can take pictures. You can do that anonymously," said Chief Jagoe.

"If you see a suspicious character and you're not comfortable, you just go on the app and taken care of it that way," said sophomore Larry Scartz.

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