In Jared Ongie's speech class, he and five other guys in the back of the room talked quietly, but seriously, about a plan to rush the shooter if he somehow broke through the classroom's locked door. Some joked. Some cried. Some called their moms.
Students and professors were warned of the shooter via text message. Soon, Twitter and Facebook lit up.
From 12:19 p.m. to 1 p.m. on a sunny Valentine's Day, students and professors at MTSU had no idea what was going on around them, and so they couldn't help but expect the worst.
Turns out, police said, a 20-year-old MTSU junior, Justin Macklin, had pulled out a revolver during a dispute with former student Austin Morrow, also 20, and shot at the ground. The bullet ricocheted off the concrete outside the Keathley University Center and struck Morrow on his thumb, MTSU Police Chief Buddy Peaster said.
After being shot, Morrow chased Macklin into the Business and Aerospace Building, and a police search soon got under way.
Corinne Neal, 19, a business and finance major, was working with a communications professor in her office when other professors ran down the hallway telling people to close and lock their doors. There was a shooter on campus.
Neal and her professor locked the door to the small office and turned out the lights to make it look as if no one was inside.
Then they held hands and prayed.
"I was thinking, 'Oh my God. Virginia Tech,' " she said of the April 2007 campus shooting that killed 32 people and injured many others.
After the shooting, police say, Macklin tried to hide in a classroom building, but police surrounded the building and arrested him when he tried to leave. Peaster said the weapon, a .32-caliber revolver, and two bags of marijuana were found in the building.
Police were questioning Macklin and Morrow late Monday. No one had been charged.
After those paralyzing 41 minutes, the school sent out an "all clear" text message.
"Now we know it was an isolated argument," said Ongie, 23, a mass communications major. "But when you're in the moment, it's pretty terrifying."
Earlier in the day, Neal had looked forward to a Valentine's Day dinner out.
After 1 p.m., she craved a quiet night at home.
Contact Erin Quinn at 615-726-5986 or equinn@tennessean.com.
The Daily News Journal contributed to this report.
