'How did I stay calm?': Campus tour guides hid with prospective families during lockdown

Ella Hoyt, a junior at UNC, was leading her tour group toward the Bell Tower when the Alert Carolina sirens first began. 

Hoyt said she initially thought they were test sirens. But people were running around campus.

“I was just worried for my safety and worried for my group’s safety, but I was also trying to figure out what was going on,” Hoyt said. “I was kind of confused, and I think my first thought was just to get everybody inside and make sure we are all in a safe place.”

According to Hoyt, the tour group was led into Murray Hall where everyone became noticeably more worried and confused.

Hoyt was one of several admissions ambassadors leading tours around campus when an over-three hour lockdown began. Zijie Yan, a UNC professor, had been shot and killed — prompting the Alert Carolina message and sirens.

Harlie Ramsey, a senior who was leading a tour near Caudill Labs, said she had not received the Alert Carolina notification informing of the armed and dangerous person when the group first noticed police report to the scene.

Ramsey said fear started to set in when she saw armed police officers run out of their cars in vests, but she had to try and calm herself.

“In the moment, I panicked myself a little bit, but I had a whole tour group,” Ramsey said. “I had families with me, and I just knew that I needed to get them to safety.” 

Ramsey said while the admissions ambassadors are not trained to handle lockdown situations, her manager stayed in contact with tour guides around campus to check in and provide updates.

Hemiede Neufville, another admissions ambassador, also stayed in contact with Ramsey during the lockdown. While Neufville said she was not giving a tour at the time, she stayed on the phone with Ramsey to help calm her down.

Neufville, who attended Lumberton High School in southern North Carolina, said she had prior experiences with active shooters in the area and knew the proper routine. She walked Ramsey through barricading the door and texted others to get more information about the situation.

“Even now like I'm still wondering myself, how did I stay calm?” Neufville said.

Christopher Lipscomb, a UNC senior and another admissions ambassador, said it was terrifying to be the authority figure during the lockdown. He tried to stay calm for the prospective families who were looking to him for guidance.

“All of a sudden, today — what was supposed to be just another standard day for me — is now in theory life or death, potentially,” Lipscomb said.

To keep everyone calm, Lipscomb said he continued the remainder of his campus tour from a locked-down room in Wilson Library.

“I was so terrified because I knew that if something were to happen, what can I do to make sure that these people are okay?” Lipscomb said.

During the lockdown, he said he had families that were being proactive with him by listening to the emergency scanner and working with current students also in the room to pull together different sources of information.

After the final Alert Carolina message was sent with the “all clear” announcement, Lipscomb said he tried his best to make sure that everyone knew where they were going and that they got home safely.

Lipscomb said he hopes prospective families were able to understand that admissions ambassadors were doing all that they could to help keep everyone safe and well.

“I really hope that they were able to see the sense of community that we have because, in my role, I certainly did see it,” Lipscomb said.

@mkpolicastro

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