What was thought to be a shooting on the BC campus turned out to be an artistic interpretation gone wrong.

On Nov. 16, the atmosphere on the Bakersfield College campus was nothing out of the ordinary. Yet, a large, white male with brown hair was “at large,” after a report was made to the BC security office by the Bakersfield Police Department that two armed individuals were seen in the northeast parking lot, and shots had been fired.

According to an e-mail sent out by Vice President of Student Learning Mildred Lovato, one of the suspects was detained by the BPD “within 42 minutes,” added Mark Graf, director of public safety.

Both suspects were working on a project for their digital photography class, in which the students were assigned to create a picture depicting a historical myth figure in the past tense and in modern times. One of the suspects was interpreting St. George slaying a dragon. In the modern interpretation of the event the student wore a trench coat and posed holding a replica of a M-16 aimed at the sky. A classmate offered the weapon to the student and served as the photographer for the assignment.

According to the report made by the BC public safety department, a student was in the northeast parking lot around 9:40 a.m. when she saw two males, one of them holding a rifle “pointing towards the college and firing the rifle.” The student immediately called 911.

The public safety department was able to identify the suspects with the aid of the BC surveillance system as well as the parking sticker on the suspect’s vehicle. The vehicle was identified by the 911 caller, Graf said. The public safety department was able to locate the student in the Fine Arts building where their digital photography class was taking place, taught by Professor Kristopher Stallworth.

Once the suspects were identified, Graf contacted one of the suspects who “admitted to having two guns in his car.” The suspect was detained at that moment and taken to his vehicle, where the suspect gave BC public safety verbal consent to search his vehicle where the M-16 replica, more commonly known as an air-soft rifle that according to the replica weaponry web site, can shoot a 6 mm soft air pellet at approximately 200 feet per second, fully automatic and able to hold 200 rounds, and a replica Glock 23 .40 caliber pistol was retrieved. Soon after, the second suspect was detained and taken to the public safety office.

Lovato said she was “impressed with how the situation was handled.”

Graf said that since the two students had not committed a crime, the BPD handed over the situation to BC public safety. According to Don Turney, dean of students, the two students violated education code 48900 m, that states ” .as used in this section ‘imitation firearm’ means a replica of a firearm that is so substantially similar in physical properties to an existing firearm as to lead a reasonable person to conclude that the replica is a firearm.” Turney said that the violation of this educational code is grounds for suspension and expulsion, depending on how serious the situation.

“Proper disciplinary action has taken place,” said Turney.

Melinda De Leon, a student of Stallworth and classmate to the two students, said she was “surprised” on the reactions regarding the events.

” It was all a big mistake,” said De Leon.

The students’ names were not released. Stallworth did not want to speak on the matter but was heard saying he did not consider alerting public safety that two students had gun replicas on campus. As far as any disciplinary action toward Stallworth, Turney said, “appropriate actions have taken place,” and he described the public safety staff’s actions as “heroic.