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Updated: 20.50
A PROFESSOR HAS been shot dead at Delta State University in Mississippi.
The campus is on lockdown, but the shooter is no longer believed to be on the grounds.
It’s unclear whether anyone else is injured.
The victim has been named as history professor Ethan Schmidt. He was killed in his office.
Police in Mississippi have named university employee Shannon Lamb as a person of interest.
Fox News / TwitterJUST IN: Cleveland, MS police say person of interest in Delta State shooting is university employee Shannon Lamb. pic.twitter.com/GfFynEBsIU
— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 14, 2015
Detective Matt Hoggatt told CNN police believe a homicide that happened in the area earlier today could be connected to the shooting.
Delta State / TwitterStudents currently in residence halls need to remain there. Administrators are working to get food, water and counselors to the Coliseum.
— Delta State University (@DeltaState) September 14, 2015
Delta State / TwitterClasses are cancelled for the remainder of the day and tonight.
— Delta State University (@DeltaState) September 14, 2015
Schmidt directed the first-year seminar program and specialised in Native American and colonial history, Don Allan Mitchell, an English professor at the school, said.
He called Schmidt “a gentleman in every sense of the word.”
Dr Ethan Schmidt was a terrific family man, a good friend.
‘Pretty terrifying’
Student Noah Joyner (18) said he was shaken by the lockdown. He hunkered down in a bathroom of his dorm building and heard others desperate to get in when reports of the active shooter spread.
There were like people banging on the doors to have somebody let them in. It was pretty terrifying to hear people banging on the door.
University Relations Vice President Michelle Roberts said it is a tragic situation, and the entire campus sends its heartfelt thoughts and sympathy to Professor Schmidt’s family.
“We are grieving on this campus with this loss, and our condolences are with the family at this time,” Roberts said.
The lockdown began about 10:45am (4.45pm GMT) local time, with the university advising students, faculty and staff to take shelter and stay away from windows.
State and local law enforcement agencies are working to find the gunman.
The 3,500-student university is in Cleveland in Mississippi’s Delta region near the Arkansas-Mississippi state line.
- with reporting from Órla Ryan
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Another one to all the shootings already this year, madness!!
You can’t legislate for mad people..
It’s mad to say it but this isn’t even newsworthy anymore. Man gets shot in country with lax gun laws and a media that pretty much glorifies those who carry out the shootings. Until they care about coming to a solution I wont care too much about these articles.
On the contrary, Rosie, you can. American laws in the last couple of decades have moved to a point where it’s virtually impossible for psychiatric professionals to force treatment on people who are dangerously mentally ill, because it’s considered a breach of their “freedom”.
That’s exactly who you legislate for Rosie, by making it harder to buy guns and for needing a psych evaluation before you can buy certain types of guns. It’s a free for all at the moment over there.
Rosie’s comment reminds people not to go around claiming to be “mentally ill”. Just because it benefits charities and those working in Psychiatry. I hear it’s aout € 1000 for a bed in a private Psychiatric hospital these days. Not forgetting the billion dollar drug industry. Big business. In the mean time social stigma is alive and well.
“Mental disorders are neither necessary nor sufficient causes of violence” ~ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1525086/
Most shootings in the US involve people on mind altering psychoactive drugs.
The only violence I saw when it came to someone struggling with mental health issues was a man being the victim of violence. Also a neighbour who had been taken off prescribed mind altering drugs cold turkey negligently by the general hospital. Which can lead to akathisia (a severe inner restlessness).
Yes you can legislate for mad people.
You can stop them from buying guns as though they buying candy.
The reality is that ANYONE in the right circumstances can go “mad”eg severe lack of sleep can lead to “Psychosis”. While most people in Psychosis do not harm anyone, there is a certain loss of touch with reality.
By blaming “the mad people” and creating a sub-class, society and the so called “normal people” aren’t facing up to that aspect of human nature. Sane in an insane world.
PS If a certain country spent more time addressing their own problems, instead of meddling in other countries through their foreign policy the world would be a better place. The rest of us now have to pick up the pieces ie the refugee crisis !
I heard one of the Afghanistan refugees say the Tali~ban are stronger now than ever on BBC News International! Not forgetting that more of their soldiers were killed in Iraq that the number killed in the twin towers !
Aine after talking a lot of sense about mental health you ruined it with an outrageously simplistic view of the cause of the refugee crisis. America are by no means blameless but they are not the only cause of why that is happening now. But totally agree on your other points.
“In 2000, the U.S. defense budget was approximately $312 billion. By 2011, the figure had grown to $712 billion” ~ http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/03/10/10-companies-profiting-most-from-war/1970997/
What about a psych evaluation every time you buy a set of knives? Or something flammable, or buy a car? Much more people are killed by those things.
A country that made the medical industry profit based along with the prison service has a a growing problem. It is more cost effective to put somebody in prison than treat them. Reduced the criteria for claims of mental illness as a defence and you have a further demonisation of ill people. Mean while they subsidise the production of unneeded and unwanted military equipment to keep certain areas economy safe as a form of social welfare.
In saying all of that this seems to be a case of personal grievance that may have nothing to do with above
Shooter??? i see the Journal has fallen for that right wing trick of downgrading a murderer.
“Legislate for mad people” ~ Blamed on mental health issues even before we know the details or the motive ! Not everyone that commits violent crimes are found to have mental health issues. And not everyone with mental health issues are violent. Such ignorance. In this dysfunctional world.
Many so called “sane” people have been responsible for the death of millions. Not forgetting the millions killed by prescribed psychoactive substances. Obviously the more subtle they do it, in a brainwashed world, the more they get away with.
“Psychiatric drugs are responsible for the deaths of more than half a million people aged 65 and older each year in the Western world” ~ http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h2435
Shipman was an amateur.
At this rate US schools and colleges untouched by gun crime of some kind will be in the minority. And they STILL don;t think they have a problem. I was hoping now that Obama is on the way out he would introduce gun reforms without the over-riding fear of alienating a large swathe of the US electorate. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be on the cards.
I suppose he could always take the Irish route and tax the shit out of guns.
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Is that quote from the bible or from guys view of guns took more than minute to reload after each shot
There is an increasing number of madmen killing people. I hope the law abiding gun owners can continue to exercise their 2nd amendment rights to protect themselves from these lunatics. Advocating gun reforms or seizures would most likely start a civil war. Americans rights have been stripped bare by ever encroaching fascist government. People forget that the foundation of our state came from guns being in the right hands. We’re about to celebrate an armed rebellion next year. Sometimes it’s necessary to own a gun if your government or foreign monarch takes the piss
So you want guns to shoot cops…
@thejynxeffect, utter bollix, the 2nd amendment might have made sense back in 1776 et al when the government of the time were no more better armed with a one shot musket than your average citizen, today the government has state of the art tanks, planes, ships, not to mention drones and all sorts of sophisticated weaponry for the man on the ground if needed?.
Increasingly people try to write off shooters in the US (if the shooter is white) as being mentally ill, in reality most fail to meet such a standard, many are in fact narcissistic or psychopathic, they don’t kill because they are ill, they kill because they like hurting people or to avenge some petty slight, something made far easier with easy access to firearms.
Other nations however do have levels of firearms ownership equal to or greater then the US, so like the serial killer the spree killer is a largely American phenomenon which requires introspection many Americans seem to be unwilling to under take.
And as for the 2nd amendment as a guard against tyranny, your police officers are more heavily armed then some countries’ infantry, what good do you think a couple of AR-15s are going to do you against an IFV?
Just another day in the USA then.
Seriously. When will they learn. The right wing in america is seriously worrying for themselves and the rest of the world
One man kills someone. The entire right wing is at fault and “worrying”. Great logic. If someone is killed by a hammer attack (which will probably happen somewhere in America tomorrow) i am going to blame the left wing.
@thejynx the problem.is its not just one man. It has been many many men women and children who have ised legally owned guns to commit these horrible atrocities and the right wing continues to say that guns are a constitutional right and block reform of gun laws. Yes there are many other weapons that can kill but it would not be so hard to stop a mad man with a hammer as it would to stop a mad man with a gun.
How can the US not see common sense? Its so obvious!
Arm every professor with a bazooka and 3 M16′s and this wont happen again! Jesus wake up people!!
The NRA is the most powerful lobby in the USA, no chance of any change in Dodge City
Cue all the people blaming an inanimate object and not the psychopath in control.
Because everyone knows that psychopaths without weapons are just as dangerous.
If gun was not available to said psychopath then there wouldn’t be a dead professor.
Paul, ever hear of a knife, a blunt object, bare hands? If someone is that intent on killing somebody else then the lack of one weapon will only mean that they just had to find another.
Cases like this have led to multiple murders, not often the case with bare hands or knives.
Depends on motive doesn’t it? The fact is that if someone is motivated enough they will find whatever means necessary to carry out their actions. You can put all of the legally held guns owned by responsible owners under lock and key but you will never stop people getting their hands on firearms. It is virtually impossible to get a licence for a handgun in Ireland yet how many people are killed each year by handguns? Blame the person who carries out the act and not the weapon. How many people call for a ban on carpet knives when someone gets slashed?
That’s alright then. Give them out with Cornflakes.
Oh boy Seamus I think you’ve just been PWNED !!
Seamus a lot of shootings in America are spur of the moment, ie domestic arguments but many are also cold and calculated often copycat for the simple reason that the easy access of guns and the carrier of the gun feels a lot more secure with the gun rather than if he wants to carry out the same crime with a knife or a hammer, so in a nutshell Seamus on this occasion you’re trying to justify the unjustifiable by talking shite.
I worked as an electrician in the states a few years ago. The high school we were renevating had regular lock down drills in which we would have to take part. Even though they were just drills I can honestly say I found it frightening. It’s something I will never forget even though they were just drills and nothing ever happened. I’m really glad my daughter will go to school in dublin.
The population of the US is huge so it’s only natural that it breeds more psychopaths per capita than a European country. Of course there are countries like India and China with bigger populations but they’re not Western so we don’t hear about the violence there in the media, which of course is more prominent than the West because the people are poorer and therefore less removed from barbarism. The problem isn’t a lack of gun control, it’s the people and even at that, the media blows it out of proportion.
Yet I bet there will still be cucks out there who want to take the right from Americans to defend themselves with a gun.
They don’t necessarily have to by a psychopath per se. This could have been the result of any number of reasons, bad grades, a perceived slight, anything really. They could be under the influence of drugs, have anger management issues, any other sort of motivation that would set them off.
Anybody who will feel the need to murder over something as flippant as a bad grade is by definiton a psychopath. If they have anger management issues and feel to murder because of them then they’re a psychopath. Drugs can alter behavior be this destructive I agree, but I’m not exactly calling for them to be leagalised
interesting statement you make there Conor, equating poor people with barbarians, China and India had civikzation when the people in Europe were still running in animal skins
Europe had Greek and Roman civilisations then though, but yes the barbaric tribes in Europe at the time were easily more violent and had a worse standard of living compared to those in the Greek and Roman societies. Just like they were more violent and had a worse standard of living than those living in Indian and Chinese civilisations. You’re the one denying the correlation between poverty and barbarism, not me.
Ah yeah Conor the usual bollixology the simple fact is Americans often like to sort their differences out over a gunfight rather than a bloody nose or a few smashed dishes or a slammed door because they can I suppose?.
Oh and btw Conor the population of Europe is well over twice the size of good old US of A.
‘The population of the US is huge so it’s only natural that it breeds more psychopaths per capita than a European country’
I’m not sure you know what the idea of quoting things per capita is.
Referring to the population of Europe as a whole implies you support EU federalisation.
Your opinion goes into the trash.
What a weird society in relation to their gun laws.
So many disappointed racist trolls when they saw it was a well-to-do, white, middle-class male, as if millions of bigots suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced….
America, take the guns away.
The sad truth is if you live by the gun you die by the gun.
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