
According to the school and a report, a former student shot and killed a professor at the University of Arizona on Wednesday afternoon inside a campus building.
Around 2 p.m., the gunman opened fire inside the John W. Harshbarger Building on the main campus of the university in Tucson. The lockdown lasted for over an hour before the suspect was apprehended.
In a statement, the school said that one person was killed in the shooting.Tucson.com reported that the victim was later identified as a professor in the Department of Hydrology.
State police captured the suspect, identified as Murad Dervish, 46, around 5 p.m. on Interstate 8 in Gila Bend, more than 100 miles away.
According to police, prior to the shooting, someone inside the building called the UA police reporting that an ex-student was inside the building without permission and requesting that officers come and escort him out.
UA police received another call reporting shots fired as they approached the building.
According to Tucson.com, UA Police Chief Paula Balafas, “someone recognized the student and knew that he was not allowed inside the building.”
Dervish had fled the building when the police arrived shortly after.
Members of the Tucson Fire Department were captured on video by Tucson.com lifting a man out of the building and loading him into an ambulance.According to the outlet, the victim was transported to Banner-University Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.
Tucson.com was told by a UA faculty member who was inside the building at the time that he heard seven to ten gunshots.
Students and faculty were instructed to shelter in place for more than an hour in response to the shooting.A university police update stated that the lockdown was lifted around 3:30 p.m.
The university requested that staff members and students either leave the campus or remain in their dorms after classes were canceled for the remainder of Wednesday.
Leave a Reply