A 22 year old man faces weapons charges after allegedly firing shots near the St. Lawrence University golf course early Wednesday morning.

Police arrested Zachary Parker, a Montana State University student from Wilton, Maine, who was visiting Canton.

He has been charged with felony counts of second and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and a misdemeanor count of fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

Parker was arraigned and remanded to the St. Lawrence County Jail on $3,500 cash bail or $7,000 bond.
 
The incident happened shortly after 3 a.m. and police said it may have been connected to a night of excessive partying by students and their friends who live off campus.

A university security officer heard five shots fired near or on the golf course nearby the Hulett and Jenks residence halls and particularly close to Jenks Hall.

"I was sound asleep - I live right over here - and I just heard a loud bang outside like a gunshot or a shotgun," said student Sean Logue. "Me and my roommate woke up and we had no idea what was going on."

After questioning some St. Lawrence students who were allegedly involved in the shooting incident, police recovered two guns.

One was a 12 gauge shotgun and the other a 9 millimeter handgun.

They were inside a vehicle parked in a campus parking lot.

While police said both guns had been fired, it did not appear the suspects involved were shooting at or targeting people.
 
"At this time there is no criminal intent that we have come up with so far," said Canton Police Chief Basil Cheney, "it just seems that it was a college prank."

University officials said that having any weapon on campus property not only violates state law, but is against student handbook rules as well.

Officials declined to say if any SLU would face campus judicial proceedings.

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