The St. Thomas student who accidentally discharged a handgun, wounding his roommate in the head on Friday night said he did not know that the weapon was loaded, police said.

St. Paul Police Public Information Officer Mike Ernster said the 22-year-old male student was trying to store the gun at the time when it accidentally fired a bullet through two walls and grazed his roommate’s head in another room of their fourth-floor apartment in Flynn Hall. The roommate was transported to Regions Hospital where he underwent surgery. He is in stable condition and expected to make a full recovery.

Vice President for Student Affairs Karen Lange and Public Safety Director Dan Meuwissen issued an online statement on Saturday afternoon addressing the incident.

“The sanctity of our campus was shaken on Friday night,” the statement read. “St. Thomas is a weapons-free campus and the safety of our students, staff and faculty is a top priority for all on campus.”

The student who fired the gun has not been arrested or charged yet, and is cooperating with police. TommieMedia does not typically name suspects before they are charged.

Authorities are continuing the investigation and charges may still be on the table, Ernster said.

“The investigator will conduct the investigation, and they’ll turn the investigation over to the Ramsey County attorney’s office for consideration of charges,” Ernster said.

According to Minnesota law, the punishment for an accidental discharge of a firearm in city limits depends on whether the person involved is charged with a misdemeanor or a felony.

The student did have a permit to carry the handgun, which is now in police custody. Ernster was unable to confirm at this time if that was the only weapon recovered. St. Thomas is conducting its own investigation into the incident and may charge the student with violation of the university’s weapons policy, which explicitly bans firearms from campus with very narrow exceptions.

“Violation of this policy by an employee or student will result in discipline, up to and including immediate termination of employment or expulsion from the university,” according to the weapons policy.

Lange wouldn’t comment on this case specifically but only generally regarding the student misconduct process.

“What happens when a student goes through the student misconduct process, it can be anything from a written warning to expulsion,” she said. “Anytime a student enters the conduct system, that’s a possibility.”

St. Thomas Director of Public Relations Janet Swiecichowski also confirmed that student who shot the gun is not on campus anymore.

“We want students to know that the person that is responsible for this incident, they are not likely to run into on campus,” Swiecichowski said. “They are not on campus right now.”

Lange could not comment on whether this investigation will impede the rest of his semester but said that they will try to do the student misconduct process “in a very timely fashion.”

Lange also noted that this is the first time a weapon has been discharged on campus as far as she knows.

Swiecichowski said that after such a severe policy violation, it is possible the university will discuss whether changes need to be made to the policy of its enforcement.

“Every time there’s a violation so severe of a policy, part of the debrief and review of the incident … is the administration looks at what are our current policies are,” Swiecichowski said. “So that is a conversation to be held … it would be premature right now to make a statement over whether it’s too easy (to bring a gun on campus) or needs to change or things like that.”

To any other students on campus with firearms, Swiecichowski does not have much to say.

“Take them home immediately,” she said.

“If we want a safe campus environment, it’s incumbent on every person in this environment to take responsibility for making it safe,” Swiecichowski added. “If a student knows another student has something that could potentially be dangerous, that student really has an obligation to our whole community to say this isn’t appropriate, to report it.”

Swiecichowski and Lange encouraged students who know of a weapon on campus to report it using St. Thomas’ anonymous tip line.

“I really can’t overstate enough that given this situation, if any student knows of any weapon on campus, they really need to call that line because we want people to feel — they have a right to feel — safe at school,” Swiecichowski said.

Simeon Lancaster can be reached at lanc4637@stthomas.edu