Early in the morning, Nov. 14, a deer crashed through a window on the ground floor of the Bankier Library and into Room 140.

John Popovich, an administrator in the Office of Innovation & Learning Resources, began his workday nearby just after the incident occurred.

“I was coming in at 7 a.m. like I always do, and I heard a ruckus coming from the library,” Popovich said. “So I looked out and saw a broken window and continued to hear crashing noises.”

“The first thing I thought was, “Oh great, someone has broken in!” So I went over to that area and saw the maintenance people gathered outside the room and I asked, What’s going on?”

“They said, ‘There’s a deer in there!’ and I looked in, and sure enough, there was a deer in the room, wildly crashing into things.”

Popovich explained that they first called the police. Then the police contacted the county and then the state, who contacted Fish and Wildlife. The Fish and Wildlife officers got to Brookdale about 10:30 a.m., and the agent tranquilized the deer. It took about 20 minutes for the tranquilizer to take effect. Then the officers went in with a sling, put the deer into it and carried the deer out.

“My understanding was that the county agent was going to look over the deer to see if it was OK.  There was definitely some bleeding, but it looked mostly like from the lower extremities where he came through the window,” Popovich said.

Librarian Chelsea Rizzolo, who shares Room 140 in the library with Amy Clark, was shaken up by the ordeal.

“I’m just very happy no one was in the office at the time and that no one was hurt, and I understand that Fish and Wildlife released the deer back to Thompson Park,” Rizzolo said.

When asked if she has been able to return to her office after the incident, Rizzolo noted that there was some blood, damage and other challenges from the deer encounter.  “We’re starting to work our way  back to the room slowly. Some things were lost, but the cleanup crews have been incredible.  They did a really good job.”

Students first became vaguely aware of the situation at 9:59 a.m. when a BCC alert went out that the library and testing center “are temporarily closed for a non-emergency.” At 11:20 a.m., both the library and testing center were reopened.