University of Richmond police took more than an hour to locate a school employee who reported seeing a gunman on campus earlier this month and confirm what he saw.

In an ongoing examination of its four-hour lockdown, UR officials acknowledged yesterday that they have revised details of what happened during the event May 6 and are changing response procedures and even definitions of what key terms mean.

"I'm not really sure anyone can say exactly what the term 'lockdown' means, for instance," said school spokesman Brian Eckert.

Eckert initially said there were at least two reports made to police of a suspicious gunman on campus, the first about 2:30 p.m.

But a more detailed examination now shows that 19-year-old Seth A. Newman's appearance prompted only one call to university police, at 2:15 p.m. A search warrant says Newman, who lives in Henrico County, told police he was the intruder; he faces multiple counts of impersonating a police officer and concealing his identity.

Not until 3:20 could police find the caller and confirm what he reported, Eckert said.

The delay occurred because police were trying to locate the intruder as well as the person who saw him. The

employee had moved to a different location and did not have a cell phone, Eckert said.

And when Eckert was directed to issue an alert by University Police Chief Robert Dillard, Eckert said he realized he did not have important access information to the school's alert system with him. "It was in my briefcase back at the office," Eckert said.

Eckert immediately called his office, but another school employee who could issue the alert was in a building next door, and the employee had to rush back to his office.

Eckert said those delays were minimal but that the school is moving quickly to adjust its response system to reflect what it learned from what Eckert called "an invaluable opportunity."

"We are generally pleased, but looking back we are seeing a number of ways to make things quicker," Eckert said.

. . .

For the first time, police officers at the school will be trained in coming weeks in how to activate the school's alert system on their own. Right now only certain administrators have that capability.

UR also will have ready by fall an independent loudspeaker system that broadcasts verbal warnings.

And key terms such as lockdown will be specifically defined, Eckert said.

UR administrators issued an alert describing a "dangerous person" on campus at 3:37 p.m., 17 minutes after the sighting of a gunman had been confirmed and 82 minutes after the call about a gunman came to police.

But it wasn't until 4:26 -- 131 minutes after the report of a gunman came to police -- that the lockdown order went out accompanied by information about a gunman and what he was wearing.

Eckert said the delay occurred because the "dangerous-person" warning was considered sufficient at first and was pre-programmed to be issued.

Dillard later concluded that more specific action needed to be taken and ordered a lockdown. By then, the gunman had been gone from UR's campus for about two hours, Eckert said.

Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or bmckelway@timesdispatch.com.