Alleged Midnight Madness Shooter Released After Hearing

Updated at 2:33 a.m. on Oct. 23.

Alex Thiele (MSB ’13), who was arrested last Friday after allegedly stealing a gun from a U.S. Park Police officer at Midnight Madness, has been released after a preliminary hearing in D.C. Superior Court Tuesday.

Judge Andrea Harnett, the presiding judge at the hearing, found probable cause that the incident took place and ordered that Thiele be placed in his parents’ custody in California, according to Ben Friedman, special counsel to the U.S. attorney in D.C.

Superior Court documents said an order for Thiele’s release was filed at about 1 p.m. on Tuesday. Thiele’s case is awaiting an indictment from a grand jury.

Thiele was charged with possession of a weapon without a license after allegedly stealing a .40-caliber handgun from Park Police officer Sherice Clanton at Friday’s Midnight Madness. A Metropolitan Police Department incident report said Thiele fired a shot in a men’s bathroom in McDonough Gymnasium, damaging a toilet, and subsequently fled to Village C West.

Thiele was apprehended by MPD and the Department of Public Safety on the third floor of Village C West’s X Wing at about 11 p.m. that night.

Mark Schamel, Thiele’s lawyer, claimed Clanton left her purse on the bleachers in the gymnasium and turned to find the contents of the purse scattered on the floor. Schamel said it was possible Thiele found the gun on the floor, and also claimed Thiele fired the gun in the bathroom accidentally. “It was not a deliberate act,” he said.

Clanton was off duty at the time, according to Park Police Sgt. David Schlosser. Park police officers are authorized to carry weapons whether they are on or off duty, Schlosser said.

MPD and DPS determined that this was an isolated incident that poses no ongoing threat to the university community, Director of Media Relations Andy Pino said.

University officials did send out a broadcast e-mail early Saturday morning with a brief summary of the incident, but did not use HOYAlert, a text message, voicemail and e-mail notification system designed for emergency situations.

“University law enforcement officers were prepared to use the HOYAlert system during Friday night’s incident, but determined that law enforcement considerations, including the situation’s swift resolution, made it unnecessary in this particular incident,” Pino said.

Schamel said he has participated in several criminal cases involving students at Georgetown and other universities. He said most of these cases have involved alcohol or drugs, but that drugs were not a factor in Thiele’s case.

“Alex Thiele is a wonderful young man who has never been in any trouble in his entire life and was never at any point a danger to anyone on that campus,” Schamel said.

Thiele was in his room in Village C West without the gun on his person when apprehended, according to Schamel.

“This was never a case of dangerousness, ever,” he said.