Police find SIUE student named in university alert

EDWARDSVILLE -- Police say they've found a student named as a "potential threat" in a campus-wide e-mail sent to the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville community.

Alton police say they located the student, a senior majoring in economics, shortly after 5 p.m. Alton Police Chief Chris Sullivan says the student was despondent.

The initial e-mail, sent around 11 a.m., warned that the student might be armed. By the afternoon, another e-mail said the student had threatened himself, not others.

University spokesman Greg Conroy says the student argued with his mother in Alton before leaving the house with a gun.

Conroy says the e-mail went out as a precaution. The campus was never locked down.