“You dream about it happening and your heart breaks when it happens somewhere else, but I didn’t think it could happen to me.”

Laura Lee Lewis, a Brookhaven High School graduate who is currently attending Mississippi State University, was in class Thursday when she saw the Maroon Alert informing the university there was a lockdown on campus and to seek safety.

“The room went quiet; nobody moved,” she said. “It didn’t really hit us.”

The reason for that alert was a MSU student who threatened to kill himself and others.

MSU police arrested Phu-Qui Cong “Bill” Nguyen, a freshman from Madison, after a campus alert warning of an “active shooter” prompted the lockdown. MSU Police Chief Vance Rice said Nguyen did not have a gun when they arrested him, that no shots were fired on the 20,000-student campus in Starkville, and no one was hurt.

But for several minutes, rumors of shots fired and injuries were rampant.

In another room on campus, Fredrica Brown had a classmate pass her a phone with the Maroon Alert. No one had told the instructor, so she was still teaching.

“At first I was shocked because I didn’t really know how to respond, so I interrupted the teacher and told her what the Maroon Alert had said,” she said. “I guess when I heard myself say that out loud I realized the magnitude of what was happening.”

Both teachers calmly instructed their classes to barricade the doors, turn off the lights and move away from the windows.

As they waited, they called family and friends. Rumors started flying and worry heightened. The constant texts with increasingly scary messages made Lewis wish that they didn’t have phones. Brown worried for her roommate who was in the building next to the alleged shooter.

“I was shaking so bad I had to concentrate on my breathing so I wouldn’t hyperventilate,” she said.

And though that was scary, Lewis and her class turned to the only place they knew to.

“It was very important to me and expecially that my class came together, and we gave it to God,” she said.

During the event she kept meditating on Psalm 23:4: “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

“I kept hearing that ‘Trust me I will take care of you,’” he said.

Brown had a similar experience with her classmates.

“This incident brought my class so much closer,” she said. “Before class we barely even talked to each other, but as we were leaving we were talking and hugging.”

Finally, the students heard from the university that campus was clear after Nguyen was in custody. Lewis said she was reluctant but made her way out of the building.

Then panic struck again. There was shout on the Drill Field in the center of campus. People began stampeding back into the building. Someone said there was a second shooter.

Lewis fled back to her classroom to safety. They soon heard it was a hoax, and in fact the campus was safe. They took a deep breath and exited once more. Outside, Lewis said it almost looked like a normal day. She passed people who were smiling and talking as they walked to their cars.

Brown said people were crying and hugging each other, and she was reassured by the large presence of law enforcement officers on campus.

She said it was important to see on Facebook all the people praying across the nation.

“Those prayers were heard and answered today,” she said.

Classes resumed on campus at 2 p.m. Thursday.

Since the incident, MSU has been criticized for using the term “active shooter,” but MSU spokesman Sid Salter and President Mark Keenum insisted that they will always err on the side of safety. A 911 transcript was released in which the caller identified the suspect and said he was threatening to kill others and himself.

Warren Strain, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, said Nguyen was on the phone with an Army recruiter in the Jackson area when the recruiter became concerned that Nguyen was considering suicide and directed a co-worker to call MSU. The Mississippi Highway Patrol was also called and told the university that Nguyen was threatening to shoot others, according to a transcript of the call released by MSU.

“MSU to all units, we have a possible active shooter in Carpenter Hall,” the university police dispatcher then broadcast, according to the transcript. “This is not a test.”

Salter and Keenum have expressed thankfulness for the safety of the students and the quick response by law enforcement.