Student who killed parents at US campus nabbed
CHICAGO: A university student who fatally shot his parents on his school campus in the US state of Michigan was arrested after an hours-long manhunt, officials said yesterday.
The episode had put the Central Michigan University campus into lockdown on Friday — trapping students in classrooms and dormitories until mid-afternoon — while police searched 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 8.30am 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 3pm that students were finally being escorted out of buildings by 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”, said campus police spokesman Larry Klaus.
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.