JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A shot fired during a disturbance just after midnight in a University of North Florida dormitory led to the arrest Friday of an 18-year-old student, News4Jax has learned.
University officials said three students got into an argument in a room on the third floor of Osprey Cove and Cameron Daniel pulled a gun and ordered the other two out of his room.
"I'm going to count to seven and everybody better get the **** out," Daniel told those the the room, a witness told police. Police said he then fired a shot into the ceiling.
No one was hurt.
According to the police report, the argument got heated after Daniel's girlfriend pulled out a Taser and triggered it several times. At one point the report said Daniel pulled the gun from his pocket and said he was, "Going to light this *itch up."
Officers found a shell casing on the floor or the room and a bullet hole in the ceiling.
The University Police Department said Daniel was arrested on charges of aggravated assault, shooting into a dwelling and discharging a firearm on campus.
Not only was he charged with criminal statutes, he also violated UNF policy that allows guns to be kept secured in vehicles on campus, but not in the dorms or other buildings.
UNF's deputy police chief Bill Strudel said Daniel will likely not be allowed back on campus.
"He will have to go through a student-conduct process or hearing and he won't be allowed back until that process is completed," Strudel said.
UNF sent an email alert to students, faculty and staff at 8:22 a.m. Friday explaining the incident and saying there were no current threats to the campus, but urged anyone with concerns to call UNF police at 904-620-2800.
"Definitely alarming, that anyone would have a gun at all and that it went off so close and I slept through it," freshman Jocelyn Derenthal said. "It's kind of scary."
Strudel said in his 12 years at UNF, there's not been a weapon fired by a student on campus.
"There are a ton of more solutions than firing a gun to solving a dispute between roommate," freshman Hannah Carroll said.
UNF had attempted to ban all firearms on campus, but that restriction was challenged by Florida Carry and the ban was overturned on appeal in 2013. Guns are now allowed if kept locked in vehicles in the parking lot.