Two colleges, one BPS school locked down as police hunted man with a gun - who turned out to be a student in a Halloween costume

Mass Art and the neighboring Wentworth Institute of Technology went into lockdown, and Boston Latin School went into "safe" mode this afternoon after somebody reported a man with a gun walking around a Mass Art dorm.

NBC Boston reports the lockdowns and a floor-by-floor search of a Mass Art dorm were caused by a Mass Art student getting a bit too successful with his Halloween costume - which involved a fake gun.

BPD and campus police swarmed the two college campuses, and the two schools told their students and staff to stay where they were and lock their doors, while BLS locked its doors and wouldn't let students leave for the day. Not long after BPD finished its search of 600 Huntington Ave., around 2:45 p.m. without finding anything, they did find the student - and promptly issued a "stand down" order when they realized he wasn't packing a real gun.

But even after all that, Mass Art said it was still in lockdown and was canceling evening classes:

The last time the Longwood Medical Area had a scare like this was in 2018, when a Simmons student mistook the pops from Boston Latin students playing balloon tag for gunfire, triggering lockdowns across the area and bringing in BPD SWAT officers in armored vehicles.