https://youtu.be/cKVKl4N51lg

Video by Cassandra Ozee.

At around 2 p.m. Monday, police responded to a call regarding an unidentified man with a machete on the second floor of Colorado State University’s Morgan Library. The man was not acting violently but made students in the area studying for finals uneasy.

He was escorted out of the library by police.

Mike Hooker, Executive Director of CSU Public Affairs and Communications, said the 20-year-old individual was not brandishing the machete.

“Officers responded and contacted the male, determined that he was not a threat to himself or anyone else, and escorted him from the library, where he was identified, interviewed, and released,” Hooker wrote in an email to the Collegian.

Though officers initially confiscated the knife, it was returned to the man as he was let go. No charges were filed, so CSU Police are not releasing the individual’s name

According to freshman human development and family studies major Sheldyn Schindler, who was a witness to the event, the man appeared to be waiting for a friend.

“He was just hanging out with the knife,” Schindler said.

According to CSU policy, the only weapons banned inside academic facilities are those termed dangerous weapons, including firearm silencers, machine guns and ballistic knives. The open carry of weapons is permitted in Colorado except in the City and County of Denver.

Another witness to the event, freshman mechanical engineering major Connor Piko, was sitting near the man before he was detained. Piko said the man did not appear to be studying in the library and was instead simply waiting. 

“I do not believe he was doing anything wrong,” Piko said. “But I mean, a police officer showing up with an M-4 assault rifle, that’s always a big deal.”

Collegian Reporter Julia Rentsch can be reached at news@collegian.com and on Twitter at @julia_rentsch.