Raleigh Police is holding three nonstudents in its custody after charging them in relation with an armed robbery attempt on campus early Thursday morning.

Police charged all three of the men with two counts of attempted armed robbery, according to Campus Police Sgt. Jon Barnwell. In addition, Barnwell said they charged the shooter with assault with a deadly weapon with attempt to kill.

Barnwell said police did recover the weapon, described as a small, silver handgun. He also said Raleigh Police, in collaboration with Campus Police, did obtain a confession from one or more of the suspects, but declined to give details.

According to Barnwell, Raleigh Police came across information in another case that indicated the three alleged men may have been involved in the attempted robbery.

“Raleigh obtained information that these guys could fit what happened at N.C. State,” he said.

Because the investigation is not yet closed, Barnwell said he could not release the names of the victims or those charged with the crime until Friday morning.

The incident occurred when a male Student Patrol officer was escorting a male student westbound on Thurman Drive around 2:30 a.m. Thursday when a vehicle stopped near them as they tried to cross Dan Allen Drive.

One of the men aimed a gun at the pair, causing the two students to flee the scene in opposite directions. Barnwell confirmed that there was a shot fired.

“The fortunate thing was that no one got hurt,” he said in an interview early Thursday morning.

The Campus Police response to the incident was “pretty quick,” according to Barnwell, a fact he attributed to the Student Patrol officer who radioed his report directly to Campus Police.

This marked the first time there has ever been a crime where an on-duty Student Patrol officer was the victim. But Barnwell said this doesn’t undermine the integrity of Safety Escort Services.

“They’ve never been there to guarantee safety, just to ensure safety,” Barnwell said. “It’s never been said that [Safety Escort Services] will stop things from happening.”

The point of the program, Barnwell said, is to promote safety in numbers.

“It’s better than walking alone,” he said. “It could have been the reason why this incident didn’t wind up with somebody getting hurt.”

Barnwell said Campus Police would reevaluate the program, like it constantly does with any safety measure, to see if there is any need to make changes to the service. He said one possibility is to pair up Student Patrol officers when they escort students around campus.