Campus Alert Archive
BU

Two Campuses, One Manhunt: BU Stretches BU Alert From the Charles River to the Medical Campus

MAshelter in placeemergency notificationmedium confidence
Confirmed Threat

On the morning of April 19, 2013, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick imposed a shelter-in-place advisory across Boston and surrounding cities while law enforcement pursued Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Boston University closed both its Charles River campus on Commonwealth Avenue and its Medical Campus in the South End. BU Alert pushed continuous updates while BUPD officers joined the Watertown manhunt and a Kenmore Square emergency at midday — when a BU Alert reporting a gun and a suspect near campus briefly shut down a six-block section of Kenmore — produced a separate alert cycle within the main shelter-in-place day. Classes resumed Monday, April 22.

Alerts
4
Response
min
Killed
0
Injured
0
Institution
Boston University
Private R1 · MA
~33,000 studentsBU Alert
Confirmed Timeline

Alert Sequence

4 messages in sequence · 1 verified verbatim

Some alert texts below are approximate reconstructions from news coverage, not confirmed verbatim transcripts. Reconstructed texts are shown in italic with a dashed border. Verified verbatim texts have a solid border and are marked accordingly.

INITIAL ALERTSMS
Verified verbatimBU Today Boston Marathon Bombings timeline, quoting the BU Alert sent at approximately 4:09 AM EDT on April 19, 201353 chars
Stay inside, BU. Classes canceled. University closed.
Sent at approximately 4:09 AM EDT on April 19, 2013 — BU's initial alert preceded the Massachusetts Governor's formal citywide shelter-in-place advisory at approximately 6:00 AM EDT, reflecting BU's independent decision to close both campuses based on overnight events at MIT and Watertown
BU's main campus stretches along Commonwealth Avenue from Kenmore Square westward — directly between the Marathon bombing site at Boylston Street and the Watertown shootout site at Dexter Avenue
The concise three-phrase format — 'Stay inside, BU. Classes canceled. University closed.' — compressed the entire operational posture into an SMS-constrained burst; no location, no threat description, no instruction beyond staying inside
UPDATESMS+7h 21m
Approximate reconstruction290 chars
BU ALERT: BPD investigating report of armed individual in vicinity of Kenmore Square / BU Castle area. AVOID Kenmore Square. Students west of Kenmore: shelter in place. Students east of Kenmore: shelter in place. This is in addition to the citywide shelter advisory. Further info to follow.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

The Kenmore Square report came in at approximately 11:00 AM EDT and was investigated by Boston Police with BUPD assistance for roughly an hour before being cleared
Layering an east-of/west-of-Kenmore instruction onto an already-active citywide shelter-in-place was operationally unusual; BU Alert is rarely used for such fine-grained geographic instructions
The BU Castle (formerly the Tudor Revival mansion at 225 Bay State Road) sits adjacent to Kenmore Square and was a focal point of the brief incident; no firearm was recovered and no arrest was made
UPDATESMS+8h 21m
Approximate reconstruction318 chars
BU ALERT: The Kenmore Square situation has been cleared. No suspect connected to the Marathon investigation was located in the Kenmore area. The citywide shelter-in-place advisory REMAINS IN EFFECT. Continue to remain indoors. BU Dining is open in residence halls; do not travel to dining halls outside your residence.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

Explicit disambiguation between the local Kenmore situation and the citywide Marathon-related shelter was necessary because students who heard the all-clear might have assumed the broader advisory had also been lifted
'BU Dining is open in residence halls' marked a different operational model from Northeastern's same-day dining-delivery approach; BU's larger residence halls had dining facilities on-site
The Boston Medical Campus continued essential clinical operations with strict access control; BU's Goldman School of Dental Medicine, School of Public Health, and School of Medicine were closed to all but essential personnel
ALL CLEAREmail+14h 51m
Approximate reconstruction395 chars
BU ALERT: Governor Patrick has LIFTED the citywide shelter-in-place advisory. The MBTA is restoring service. BU remains closed tomorrow, Saturday, April 20. Classes will resume Monday, April 22. Admitted Students Weekend events scheduled for tomorrow have been cancelled and will be rescheduled. Counseling services are available through Behavioral Medicine for anyone affected by the past week.

This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.

BU's [Admitted Students Weekend cancellation](https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2013/04/22/with-admitted-student-weekends-disrupted-universities-went-online/) became a national story; BU, Harvard, Tufts, and Northeastern all pulled the plug on their April 19-21 events during the manhunt
Tsarnaev was [taken into custody in Watertown at approximately 8:45 PM EDT on April 19, 2013](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2013/04/19/177885868/shots-explosions-heard-as-boston-manhunt-continues); BU's email was sent at approximately 7:00 PM EDT after Governor Patrick's 6:00 PM EDT lift announcement
BU's reference to Behavioral Medicine, distinct from undergraduate counseling, reflected the dual undergraduate-medical-campus nature of the university and was an early example of trauma-response framing in a campus alert
Context

Background

Boston University sits in a uniquely complex geography for the April 19, 2013 Boston Marathon manhunt: the Charles River main campus runs west along Commonwealth Avenue from Kenmore Square — three blocks from the Boylston Street bombing site — and the Medical Campus in the South End is two miles southeast. When Governor Deval Patrick imposed a citywide shelter-in-place advisory at approximately 6:00 AM EDT, BU Alert pushed near-simultaneous SMS and email messages closing both campuses. The most unusual feature of BU's lockdown day was a midday Kenmore Square emergency when a report of an armed individual near the BU Castle on Bay State Road prompted a separate BU Alert cycle layered on top of the active citywide advisory. The Kenmore report turned out to be unconnected to the Marathon bombing and cleared within roughly an hour. BUPD officers joined the Watertown manhunt, a precedent-setting deployment of a private-university police force to a multi-jurisdictional terrorism response. The shelter-in-place advisory was lifted at approximately 6:00 PM EDT; Tsarnaev was captured at 8:45 PM EDT. BU canceled its admitted-students-weekend events (April 19-21) and remained closed Saturday before resuming classes Monday, April 22. The case is significant for the archive because it documents (1) the operational challenge of coordinating a two-campus, two-mile-separated urban-R1 response to a regional terrorism event, (2) the precedent of layering a local 'avoid the area' alert on top of an active citywide shelter-in-place advisory, and (3) the impact of the lockdown on admitted-students-weekend events across multiple Boston universities.
Analysis

Key Findings

Boston University used BU Alert to close both its Charles River and Medical Campus simultaneously, an early example of a multi-campus private-R1 emergency communication during a regional terrorism event
A midday Kenmore Square emergency — a report of an armed individual near the BU Castle — produced a separate BU Alert cycle layered on top of the active citywide shelter-in-place advisory, and was ultimately determined unconnected to the Marathon investigation
BUPD officers joined the Watertown manhunt, a precedent-setting deployment of a private-university police force to a multi-jurisdictional terrorism response
BU's Admitted Students Weekend (April 19-21, 2013) was canceled and rescheduled; Harvard, Northeastern, and Tufts similarly canceled their concurrent admitted-student events
The shelter-in-place was lifted at approximately 6:00 PM EDT on April 19, 2013, ahead of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's capture in a Watertown backyard at 8:45 PM EDT; BU remained closed Saturday before resuming classes Monday, April 22
Outcome
No injuries at BU. The midday Kenmore Square emergency turned out to be a false alarm: a person seen carrying what was thought to be a firearm in the vicinity of the BU Castle was not connected to the Marathon bombing, and the situation cleared within an hour. BUPD officers returned to campus from the Watertown response after Tsarnaev's capture. Classes resumed Monday, April 22, 2013. BU's experience is documented in BU Today's contemporaneous and 5-year-anniversary retrospectives, and BU canceled its admitted-students weekend events through the lockdown.
Provenance

Sources

  1. Official
    BUPD's Role in the Marathon Bomber Manhunt - BU Today
    bu.edu
  2. Official
    A Gun, a Suspect, a Manhunt Shut Down Kenmore Square - BU Today
    bu.edu
  3. Official
    Boston Marathon Bombings - BU Today timeline
    bu.edu
  4. News
    A Timeline Of The Boston Manhunt - NPR
    npr.org
  5. News
    The Marathon Bombing: Gunfights, Blasts and a Manhunt Shut Down Boston - TIME
    nation.time.com
  6. News
    With Admitted Student Weekends Disrupted, Universities Went Online - Boston Magazine
    bostonmagazine.com
  7. Source
    Boston Marathon bombing - Wikipedia
    en.wikipedia.org
Tags
boston-marathon-bombingshelter-in-placelockdownterrorismboston-universityprivate-r1bostonmanhuntkenmore-squarecampus-policetwo-campusadmitted-students-weekend2013
Added May 2026Updated May 2026Via ingestion