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It was December 14th, 1994.
A freezing cold winter day in Albany, New York
I was a student at SUNY Albany. It was my very first semester there as a transfer student.
I was in my dorm and I was packing black garbage bags filled with my clothing. I was packing to go home for over a month….
It was the last day of classes before winter break.
It was approximately 9 a.m.
I was excited to go home for Christmas/Winter break.
I did not have any classes to attend that day although many students did. I could have taken this one particular test in LECTURE CENTER #7, but I didn’t have to because I was happy with my class average. Only those who wanted to take the final exam to bring up their grade needed to be at lecture center #7..
Well, I decided to watch a little television while I was packing up my room. Turns out, there was “breaking news” on all of the TV stations.
There was a gunman inside LECTURE CENTER #5 !!! (Just 2 doors down where I could have been).. The gunman held the entire class hostage. 35 college students were in that lecture center.
I was watching this all unfold on my television.
I lived in the downtown/off campus dorms…So, I was about 2 miles from where this was happening..
I could not believe it.. It was very scary. I will never forget the images of the SWAT Team “sharp shooters” dressed in black, wearing bullet proof vests, standing atop of the lecture center building… Pointing there guns in anticipation.
Well, no one knew exactly what was going on INSIDE that classroom.
A side note:: A guy who lived about 3 doors from me in the dorm building was in that classroom.
After about 3 hours, the standoff was over.
There was a lot that took place in that room and we found out afterwards.
The gunman told the class professor to leave so that he could tell security, the governor, and the State Police about what’s going on . The professor followed those orders and that is how the rest of the world found out what was happening in that lecture center.
The gunman took a firehose and tied the large, heavy doors to the lecture center shut so no one could get in.
Turns out, after almost 3 hours, a student in the classroom took a chance and grabbed the barrel of the gunman’s rifle and struggled with him….Many of his classmates jumped in and pretty much beat the guy up and took him down. That student who grabbed the gun at first, Jason McEnaney, got shot in the groin.
You can only imagine the law enforcement and media craziness that occurred from that point forward !!
Fast forward one month ..I don’t think that Jason McEnaney came back to school to start the spring semester, or ever again, after that.
I know the kid who lived down the hall from me did because I was surprised to see him the following semester when I moved back into my dorm room. Although I knew his name back then, I don’t recall what it is 20 years later. He was tall with red hair and he was a huge St. John’s sports fan…That’s all I remember about him…..
So, the new semester began in January of 1995 and that means a new class schedule.
I get my schedule and I look it over..
Turns out, I have a class in Lecture Center #5 !! The scene of the crime !!!
I was truly surprised they continued to use that classroom so soon after the incident, but they did.
The ironic part is….The class that I was taking in LC #5 was called “SOCIAL PROBLEMS”..
On the first day of class, none of the students mentioned the hostage situation and they didn’t seem to care much .. They just looked half asleep and typical college student zoned out look on their faces…
Another interesting part of this story… The teacher decided to play a movie the very first day of class to put us all in the mind frame of what “Social Problems” is all about.
She (the teacher) played the movie “Falling Down” starring Michael Douglas. It was about a white collar worker who was going through tough times and just “lost it” one day…
Anyway, looking around the classroom… I noticed remnants of the hostage situation that took place a month earlier..
I saw new, large patches of carpeting. It was obvious that large squares of bloody carpet were cut up from the staircase and replaced with new brighter patches of carpet.
I also saw what looked to be bullet holes in the wall. And the movie screen looked to have bullet sized holes as well !!
When I decided to write this story, I googled “Lecture center hostage situation SUNY Albany”…. The first story that came up as a result of that search was an article written on the 20th anniversary of the incident … just this past December.
I learned so much more from this article and when the witness described how it all went down that December morning in LC5, all of the images I saw in that room matched up with his description. It was kind of cool to match my memory of what I saw to the memory of what that witness described.
The gunman who held that classroom full of students hostage was mentally ill. Student witnesses even recalled how it was obvious that the gunman was hearing “voices in his head” that day.. …
It was very sad to read about this.
Something I did not know until now, … The gunman, Ralph Tortorici, committed suicide while being held at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, NY. In 1999.
Please read the attached article about the 20th anniversary of this situation.
I do not know what ever happened to the guy, Jason McAnaney, who initiated the takedown of the gunman and got shot. I read shortly after the incident that he received a sizable monetary reward from a wealthy woman who lived in Saratoga, NY. I also read that he was going to sue the SUNY system.. I don’t know what ever came of that, however.
Check out the Albany Times Union article below. It’s a good read. There is more to the story in this article….
http://m.timesunion.com/local/article/Recalling-three-hours-of-terror-in-Lecture-Center-5961566.php
I was in that class . Due to brain trauma not related to that incident my memory of the hostage situation is limited. I remember a big kid with a lacrosse shirt. He was one of the first to rush the gunman. I jumped on the gunman after he was down and unarmed. What made this situation strange was I rarely attended class. I went only two or three times. I thought is was a Greek mythology class when I signed up. it was not. I went that day to see if I could receive an incomplete instead of an F. I remember being very hungry during the crisis. When the gunman demanded food from the negotiators’ they gave us a couple of bags of Taco bell. How the food was brought I am not sure. I do recall shortly after students rushed him. He might have been distracted while eating. After the incident the guy with the Lacrosse shirt came up to me. I was staring into space not quite fully comprehending what had just happened. He told me it would be okay. I don’t remember his name.
Cooper – Thanks for sharing what you recall from that day. Where do you live now and how has this incident effected your life ?
The person he is referring to with the lacross shirt is tom alexander. He is married to one of my oldest and dearest friends.