Two universities in the United States are in mourning this Monday after recording two acts of violence – with no apparent connection to each other – which left seven dead and two wounded. Both attacks occurred off campus: at a school bus in Virginia and at a residence near the Idaho study center.
Police were actively looking for the suspect a shooting that left three dead at the University of Virginia (UVA), in Charlottesville, authorities said.
The campus was cordoned off as police searched for a suspected man by helicopter “armed and dangerous”tweeted the UVA Office of Emergency Management.
UVA President Jim Ryan said in a statement that the suspect is Christopher Darnell Jones Jr.student of that house of studies.
“This is a traumatic incident for everyone in our community and we have canceled classes for today,” Ryan said.
The three deceased were students and belonged to the school’s soccer team, Ryan said. He explained that the shooting occurred Sunday night in a school bus with students who were returning from an off-campus field trip.
Psychological counseling and support will be made available to students and teachers, he added.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has indicated that local authorities coordinate university security with state police.
“Please isolate yourself while authorities work to locate the suspect,” he asked on Twitter.
A second tragedy struck the University of Idahoin the state of the same name in the west of the country, where the police have announced they are investigating the deaths of four students found in a house near campusapparently “homicide victims”.
Officers responded to a phone call in the city of Moscow, near the University, concerning an unconscious individual.
“Upon arrival, officers discovered four dead,” police said in a statement.
“It is with deep sadness that I share with you that the university was notified today of the deaths of four University of Idaho students living off campus who are believed to be victims of homicide,” said center president Scott Green , is a statement.
Meanwhile, the University of Oakland, near Detroit in upstate Michigan, on Monday asked its students and staff not to travel to campus because “police still looking for two armed suspects” sighted early in the morning.
School shootings are commonplace in the United States and each time they rekindle the debate about better firearms supervision.
In April 2007, Virginia was rocked by a student who killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech University campus in Blacksburg before taking his own life.
Tim Kaine, a Democratic senator from that East Coast state, said in a tweet on Monday that he was “deeply moved to learn that more Virginians have been wiped out by gun violence.”
With information from AFP
Source: Clarin
