1 Dead, 1 In Custody Following Shooting At Purdue University

By Rosemary Regina Sobol, Chicago Tribune

A man is dead and another person is in custody following a shooting on the campus of Purdue University in West LaFayette, Indiana, according to school officials.

The gunman walked into a basement classroom of the Electrical Engineering building around noon while a class was going on, school and law enforcement officials told a news conference.

“The suspect came into the building, walked to the classroom, shot the individual and walked out,” said school spokesman Greg McClure. He then walked outside and surrendered to police.

“The suspect was apprehended on the east side of the Electrical Engineering building just outside the building,” McClure said.

He said police believe the shooter was targeting the man he shot and “there was no effort to target anyone else.”

“Nobody else was wounded or hit by gunfire, it was just the person who was killed,” McClure said.

Police said there was no argument or fight before the shooting. McClure would not say if the victim was a teacher.

As of 1:30 p.m., police were still searching the building as a precaution but believed there was no threat to anyone else on the campus.

Students were initially told to stay in place until the building was cleared and the area fully searched. Around 12:45 p.m., other campus buildings were opened and the “shelter in place order” was lifted, the school tweeted.

A few minutes later, the school tweeted an all-clear. “No ongoing threat to campus. Resume normal operations. (Electrical Engineering) will remain closed.”

Erica Ambrose, a senior in the School of Agriculture, told the school’s newspaper that she was in class in the Electrical Engineering building when she “heard shouting downstairs and it sounded like people were running through the hallways, just yelling at each other.”

“We heard the sirens and we looked out the window to see they had somebody in handcuffs,” Ambrose told the Purdue Exponent. “Then, the fire alarms went on to evacuate so we came outside. When we got out, that’s when we got the text to avoid the area.

“We didn’t actually hear the gunshot,” she said. “We just heard yelling.”

Photo: Scholewiak via Flickr