ATHENS — Lesson 1: Don't run across a college campus wearing a ninja mask.
Lesson 2: If you must, don't run past a group of federal law enforcement officers.
University of Georgia sophomore Jeremiah Ransom learned both lessons the hard way Tuesday when he sprinted from a ninja-pirate party given by a campus Christian organization to the dining hall wearing a red bandanna across his face.
Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, attending a conference on campus, spotted the masked student and gave chase.
Freshman Kathleen Ruark was outside Snelling Hall when the plainclothes officers ran up with guns, yelling, "Get down."
"We had no idea who they were talking to," Ruark said. "We were crouching down."
Ransom said one of the agents pinned him to the ground with his knee, demanding, "Where's the gun?"
"I don't have a gun; I've never had a gun," Ransom said. "He said, 'I saw you with a gun. Where'd you stash it?' "
ATF Special Agent in Charge Vanessa McLemore said the officers chased Ransom after seeing him peek around a stone pillar toward the cashier's booth in a nearby parking garage. "They called for him to stop and he didn't," she said. "It was the totality of the circumstances."
Ransom was released after 30 minutes when UGA police determined he was not a threat.
He said he was "just being stupid" by wearing the bandanna.
"All my friends are telling me to sue," he said Wednesday. "I was just praying that nothing was going to happen to me."
ATF rids a ninja threat at the University of GA.
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Originally Posted by Ran Kizama
