SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. -- It turns out, no one yelled about having a gun at a University of Rhode Island lecture hall.
But a female student who screamed, "Oh, my God!" when she heard a man's unsettling voice in the hallway set off a panic at John Chafee Social Science Center that led to a massive police search and campus lockdown, said State Police Col. Steven O'Donnell.
The woman heard a man outside the door say, "I'm a nice guy." "She freaked out," O'Donnell said. "It was the way he said it."
Coupled with the heightened awareness of school shootings, the woman's scream turned into "a perfect storm," O'Donnell said.
Several students and even the professor told reporters Thursday that they heard a man's voice say: I'm a nice guy. I'm a good guy. I have a gun.
But when questioned by state police detectives, the stories turned into a tale of "telephone" -- where "God" may have sounded like "gun," or people just thought she was screaming for a reason, O'Donnell said.