This morning over coffee my wife caught part of an NPR bulletin on a college shooting. I walked into my home office, Googled “university shooting,” and was reading the story 20 minutes after it appeared. Delaware State is where the shooting occured. Three DSU students were murdered in Newark last August.
Delaware State appears to have learned from the mistakes at Virginia Tech, and is doing a good job of getting the word out and taking precautions. Two students were shot near Memorial Hall gym on campus just before midnight Thursday/Friday. The gunman is still at large as I write this, and the injured students are hospitalized. The campus in on lockdown, classes are canceled, and word is going out via the school’s web site and the media, which are propagating this story to the tune of over two million Google hits and 297 news stories for “Delaware State shooting.”
Since the Virgina Tech shooting I’ve started keeping my classroom door locked from the outside during class. It’s not a perfect solution, but it helps. We all are holding our breath for Delaware State students, faculty, staff and families.
Update 10:39 pm Two people are being sought for questioning and one has been questioned. DSUs campus is still closed, although students got police escorts to lunch, and parents are being allowed to take students home. Both victims are 17-year-olds from Washinton, D.C. (17-year-olds in college?) According to this Baltimore Sun story, “Students were notified of the shootings in person by advisers, by phone calls and text messages and on the university’s Web site.” Within minutes after the shooting RAs did a door-to-door head count in the dorms. This WUSA story identifies the most injured victim as Shalita Middleton, from Washington, DC.
Update 8/25/07 A suspect was arrested today in the shooting. Apparently the shooter had argued with one of the victims earlier that night. When questioned by reporters, Loyer D. Braden said he was sorry. Here’s a link to the Wilmington News Journal story.
