The University of Tennessee at Knoxville cancelled its barricade order after a campus-wide emergency alert and lockdown were issued in response to a stabbing near World’s Fair Park.
That move came after university police said the active attacker was no longer a threat to campus, even as the suspect had remained at large earlier while officials told students and others on campus to take appropriate action immediately. The alert had described an active threat attacking people on or near campus, and multiple police agencies were on the scene responding to the situation.
Knoxville Police Department said the stabbing happened at World’s Fair Park and involved two people believed to be unhoused. It said the victim sustained non-life-threatening injuries. UT Police described the suspect as a black male wearing black pants and white shoes and said he was heading west toward campus.
The important detail is that the emergency response was aimed at the campus even though the reported stabbing was near World’s Fair Park rather than on campus. UT ALERT later said no students or campus property were involved, which is why the order could be lifted even without a public arrest announcement or a stated location for the suspect.
What remains unresolved is where the suspect was when the barricade order was cancelled. University police said the threat to campus had passed, but the report did not say how they reached that conclusion. For students and others who had been told to shelter in place, the immediate danger was over, but the wider case around the stabbing had not been closed.
University of Tennessee at Knoxville also appears in earlier campus reporting, including coverage of a lockdown after the same stabbing near World’s Fair Park and a separate board settlement involving Tamar Shirinian, but the immediate story today is the end of the barricade order and the fact that campus police no longer viewed the attacker as a threat.
