On Tuesday, a gunman shot and killed a fellow student on the campus of Purdue University. The school's police chief has indicated that Cody Cousin, a 23-year-old from Warsaw, Ind., engaged in the shooting with a single target in mind.
"This doesn't appear to be what you would typically have as an active shooter on a campus," said Purdue University Police Chief John Cox. "This individual seemed to have had intentions for the decedent."
The victim has been identified as Andrew Bolt, a 21-year-old senior from West Bend, Wis. Cousins, a student at the school's college of engineering, has been "booked on a preliminary charge of murder," per Cox. Cousins has had previous contact with the West Lafayette, Ind. Police on an alcohol offense.
As reported by the Lafayette Journal & Courier, Cousins was an undergraduate teaching assistant in the computer engineering department and Boldt assisted with an electrical engineering class. On Tuesday morning, Cousins walked into the electrical engineering building, headed to the basement classroom where Boldt was in attendance and shot him dead with between four to five shots fired. Afterwards, Cousins calmly walked out of the building and surrendered to a police officer.
"We heard shouting downstairs and it sounded like people were running through the hallways, just yelling at each other," Erica Ambrose, a senior in the School of Agriculture, told The Exponent, the student newspaper.
The initial campus-wide lockdown lasted only two hours, although police continued to search the engineering building after the general lockdown was lifted. Classes are cancelled for the remainder of Tuesday and Wednesday.
"Today's shooting at Purdue University is a tragedy, and our heartfelt condolences go out to the family of the victim and to everyone in the Purdue community," Ind. Gov. Mike Pence said in a statement. "I commend the professionalism of the West Lafayette Police Department in apprehending the suspect and bringing the situation to a swift conclusion. The Indiana State Police are on the scene and will continue to assist local law enforcement with the ongoing investigation."
"Initially I didn't think they were gunshots," Kirk Choquette, a 20-year old sophomore, told the Los Angeles Times. "I thought someone was just banging on the wall on the wall ... then I heard cops yell, 'Get down.'"
"I was in disbelief that a shooting would happen, especially near me," he continued. Choquette said that he and a friend saw a man leave the building with allegedly blood on his hands.
Law enforcement, at the time of the publication of this article, do not know the motive behind the shooting.
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