"You're really powerless. It definitely felt powerless to be sitting there, barricaded and you have no idea where your friends are and you have no idea what's going on," says student Tarun Ramkumar.

An active shooter scare at South Carolina’s flagship university over the weekend was a swatting hoax, University of South Carolina police said. The USC Police Department received two calls around 6:30 p.

“At approximately 6:30 this evening, USCPD received a report of gunfire at the Thomas Cooper Library on the Columbia campus. A Carolina Alert was sent instructing the community to avoid the area and shelter in place. Law enforcement responded quickly to the scene and have found no evidence that a shooting occurred.