A Zimbabwean and three other students at Harvard University were woken up by heavily armed campus police officers pointing guns at them.
The officers raided their dorm suite at gunpoint after the department received a false emergency call, claiming that two women inside the dorm suite were going to be killed.
According to Boston Globe, the officers forced them from their university residence on DeWolfe Street around 4 a.m and searched their rooms.
David Madzivanyika said he awoke to the sound of banging on the suite’s doorway, and was going to answer when officers opened the door and came through with long guns.
He recalled raising his hands when an officer yelled orders. ” ‘Freeze! Put your hands where I can see them!’ ” the officer said, according to Madzivanyika.
“I was just thinking, ‘Please, Lord, not today,’ ” Madzivanyika said. “It’s a scary time for anybody to have a gun pointed at them, especially on a college campus.”
Madzivanyika remained disturbed by the ordeal, including the hoax caller who appeared to know details about their dorm suite. But the police response didn’t set him at ease.
“Just the fact that that call can be made . . . that’s unsettling. And then the response, too, is also unsettling,” said Madzivanyika. “I appreciate the police trying to do their job that they’re doing. But definitely, more training is required.”
