Editor's Note: Our live coverage of this event, produced with the Oxford Free Press Editor Sean Scott, has concluded. For a full update, read the follow-up coverage by the Oxford Free Press here.
Oxford Police apprehended a suspect following an hours-long barricade situation April 15, Oxford Police Department (OPD) Chief John Jones confirmed to the Oxford Free Press.
A woman reported to OPD that her ex-boyfriend had entered her apartment on the corner of High and Locust Streets without permission and wouldn't leave. The woman was not in the apartment at the time she reported the trespassing. When OPD responded, the suspect barricaded himself in the unit.
Jones confirmed that Harrison Hooks is a suspect connected to the incident.
On the scene
A large bang could be heard at 8:47 p.m., which sent a crowd of onlooking students who had gathered running. Three additional loud bangs were heard near the scene at 9:14 p.m.
At 9:25 p.m., eyewitnesses near the scene confirmed to The Miami Student that they saw a man taken out of the apartment complex. The man was handcuffed and then put on a stretcher, the witnesses said. Loud cheers could be heard in the area at the same time.
First responders on the scene would not take questions.
During the event, a first responder speaking into a megaphone could be heard instructing a person in an apartment building to come out. First responders on the scene told a reporter from the Oxford Free Press that responders had "rifles drawn." A considerable crowd had gathered at the scene by 8:30 p.m. despite emergency messages warning Miami students to avoid the area.
First responders load man into ambulance at 9:32 p.m. as spectators watch.
The first responders on the scene included the Oxford Fire Department, Oxford Police Department, Butler County Sheriffs Office and more. The reporter from the Oxford Free Press could not immediately confirm the cause of the situation.
A dispatcher at the OPD Station confirmed to the Free Press reporter at 9:10 p.m. that the department would not comment on the situation while it was ongoing.
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A large crowd had gathered to watch the police response but dispersed after a loud bang at 8:47 p.m.
Leane Kinney, a senior marketing and entrepreneurship major who lives in a property near the apartment complex, said the police presence began showing up around 6 p.m. She and her roommates had been watching from the front porch since the event began. Kinney and others nearby were unsure of what the situation was because of multiple rumors.
No police told Kinney or her housemates directly that they needed to stay inside, she said.
"It was really scary at first because they just kept pulling out guns and things," Kinney said, "and they weren't telling us anything at all."
According to posts on social media, residents of the apartment complex at the intersection of Locust and High Streets had been instructed not to leave their units.
At 9:45 p.m., an emergency alert text to Miami University students confirmed that the police activity had concluded.
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