A UIC student was arrested Wednesday after officials said the person tried to use an incendiary device and then attempted to stab another student at UIC Student Center East. The incident prompted an evacuation of the building at 750 S. Halsted St. and brought federal agencies into the response.
UIC sent an alert at about 12:39 p.m. telling people to avoid the building as the situation unfolded. The notice came fast because the disturbance did not stay contained to one floor or one moment. Officials said the attempt with an incendiary device happened in a second-floor hallway of SCE before the stabbing attempt on the second floor, turning what might have been a campus scuffle into a law enforcement response that drew the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
That scale of response mattered because UIC later said there was no threat to the campus community, even as Student Center East stayed closed and the investigation continued. The building remained out of service while police worked the scene, and federal authorities said they were supporting the inquiry. For students inside the center, though, the danger felt immediate. Kaleb Miller said he saw a butcher knife during the incident, and witnesses said police later arrested a man after the disturbance.
Other witnesses described the scene as chaotic. Simon Dean said he heard commotion, then saw people on the floor and police ordering someone to get down. EJ Johnson said the first sign that something was wrong was officers backing up with weapons in hand before people yelled for everyone to get out of the way. Those accounts match a scene that moved quickly from alarm to arrest, with one student targeted and another taken into custody.
The unresolved question is what charges will follow. UIC said Student Center East was expected to reopen Thursday, but the wider investigation remains open, with the FBI and ATF still involved and police still sorting out exactly how the incendiary-device episode and the attempted stabbing fit together.
