Stony Brook probes spray that sickened students

As Stony Brook University police investigated the release of a substance that may have been pepper spray into a college dormitory, residents said life had returned to normal in the dorm.

Four students were taken to the campus hospital Sunday night after the substance, which university officials said could also have been mace, was released on the third floor of the Hand College dorm.

About 100 students were evacuated in the incident, which several students said they believed was a prank gone awry.

"I wouldn't say it was a terrorist attack," said computer science major Arinder Singh, 19, who was outside the dorm when it was evacuated Sunday night. "Someone might have been having a prank."

About 20 students who were in the vicinity of the third floor of the dorm were "decontaminated" as a precaution, a university spokeswoman said in a statement Monday morning. Four of them, "with minor irritation complaints," were treated and released from Stony Brook University Medical Center, spokeswoman Lauren Sheprow said.

The source of the irritant, which some students said created a haze in the dorm, is under investigation by university police, Sheprow said. She said police are looking into complaints that someone may have released the substance by heating a can of pepper spray in a dorm oven.

"Based on the signs and symptoms exhibited by the victims, and the fact that there were no traces of chemical found, it is likely that the substance was an irritant such as pepper spray or mace," the university statement said.

The dorm was evacuated shortly after the 7:10 p.m. incident, Sheprow said, and students were readmitted about 10:15 p.m.

Word of the incident traveled fast through the student body, said Amanda Sherley, 19, a math major who lives in an adjacent dorm. She said students were concerned but not scared.

"It's college," she said. "I'm sure it will be blown over tomorrow."

Caitlin Reilly, 19, who has not declared a major, added: "I think I read a [Facebook] status update that said someone tried to cook pepper spray."