Arkansas Shooting Leaves 2 Dead
Who would have thought that a school shooting would ever occur in a relatively small university in Arkansas? Certainly not the students of the University of Central Arkansas! Early this morning, authorities reported that a shooting had occurred inside the campus of the said school. The Associated Press has just run this story. The news report narrates:
UCA police spokeswoman Lt. Rhonda Swindle said the first report of shots fired came at 9:19 p.m. An officer heard the shooting, which occurred near a male dormitory and behind the campus police station, and arrived on the scene in less than a minute, she said.
Witnesses described hearing as many as five gunshots ring out. One man fell to the sidewalk along the narrow alley between the dormitory and a fine arts center and died. Swindle said the two others rushed into the dorm, where paramedics later found them.
One man died at a local hospital, while another who wasn’t a student was treated and released, Swindle said.
Take note of the location of the shooting – near a male dormitory and right behind the campus police station! It is interesting, though, that the other person who died in the shooting was not a student. So what do the authorities have to say about the cause of the incident?
Swindle had no immediate explanation for the shooting, though she said police questioned one “person of interest” into the early morning hours. She said detectives believed four people were involved in the attack, though no arrest or search warrants had been issued in the case.
“We have really good leads we’re following up on right now and we feel the campus is safe,” Swindle said.
Since it has not even been a full day since the shooting, the authorities are quite tight lipped about the investigation. They have not released any specific information, even about the victims. As for us who are not directly affected, we can only wonder why this happened.
The students of the university, however, are feeling a bit rattled. And why wouldn’t they? They, like so many other students in universities scattered around America, have always felt that their school was relatively safe. Now, however, they are not so sure about that anymore.
One positive thing that I noticed about this incident is that the school’s newly purchased automated emergency information system was put to test for the first time and it seems that it has passed with flying colors.
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Posted on October 27th, 2008 by Deborah J Thomas
Filed under: Administrators, College, News, Parents, People Involved, School Grade Level, School Safety Issues, Shootings, Students, Violence
People ALWAYS think that crime does not happen on college campuses! The administrators constantly tell everyone these are “isolated incidents”. Its obvious college campuses aren’t isolated, these situations are happening far too often. Its time, especially in New York for the State University to wake up and give its university police force the support and unification(centralize it’s command) it needs to protect the students on its campuses.
Crime happens all the time in colleges, but generally they are not as serious as these shootings. Students, especially those looking to enter college, should be proactive and research how often crimes occur and the type of crimes that occur on the prospective college that they hope to get into.