A university student who fatally shot his parents on his
school campus in the US state of Michigan was arrested
without incident after an hours-long manhunt, officials
said early Saturday.
Shooting outside US Spy agency headquarters
The episode had put the Central Michigan University
campus into lockdown Friday morning — trapping
students in classrooms and dormitories until mid-
afternoon — while police conducted an expansive search
for the 19-year-old suspected gunman.
James Eric Davis, described as a university student, was
turned in by “an individual on a train passing through the
north end of campus shortly after midnight”, university
officials said. Officers arrested him without incident.
The suspect is accused of killing his father, a police
officer, and mother in a shooting inside a dormitory
building in what a university police spokesman described
as a “family-type domestic issue.”
There were no other casualties.
The college campus in the city of Mount Pleasant in
central Michigan was on lockdown hours after the 8:30
a.m. (1330 GMT) shooting, as federal, state and local
law enforcement searched for Davis using helicopters
and police dogs.
Heavily armed officers fanned out throughout the city,
and residents and students were asked to stay inside and
lock their doors.
University officials announced at 3:00 p.m. (2000 GMT)
that students were finally being escorted out of buildings
by police.
– Suspect known to police –
Davis, who was a resident of nearby Illinois state but
attending college in Michigan, was known to law
enforcement.
Police took him to a hospital the night before for what
was believed to be a “drug-related type of incident — an
overdose or a bad reaction to drugs,” campus police
spokesman Larry Klaus told a news conference.
He was then released to hospital staff, Klaus said.
An Illinois state legislator identified Davis’s victims as his
parents, who lived in a Chicago suburb.
“The shooting at Central Michigan University today strikes
close to home,” tweeted the state representative, Emanuel
Welch.
“My sincerest condolences go out to the family of
Bellwood Police Officer James Davis Sr and his wife who
were shot and killed.”
It was unclear what kind of weapon Davis used or how he
acquired it.
The state of Michigan allows for the concealed carrying
of a handgun with a permit, but Central Michigan
University does not allow guns on campus.
The reaction to the shooting was swift Friday morning,
with multiple alerts going out on social media and mobile
phones within minutes of the incident.
With one day left before residence halls were scheduled
to close for spring break, parents seeking out their
children were told to go to a staging area at a nearby
hotel.
– Florida shooting –
The shooting came amid a renewed debate over
pervasive gun violence and law enforcement’s role in
stopping potential shooters, which was sparked when a
teenage gunman killed 17 people at a Parkland, Florida
high school two weeks ago.
Accused gunman Nikolas Cruz had a history of run-ins
with law enforcement, which have faced scrutiny over
their failure to intervene despite multiple warnings.
Cruz used a semi-automatic assault rifle in his attack,
leading students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High
School to make public appeals for change to permissive
US gun laws.
President Donald Trump has called for training and
arming some teachers, tougher background checks and a
potential increase to the minimum age for rifle
purchases.
But the powerful National Rifle Association gun lobby said
that Trump was opposed to gun control after meeting
with him on Thursday.
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