By RANDALL CHASE
Associated Press Writer
DOVER, Del. (AP) — Two students were shot and wounded, one
seriously, at Delaware State University early Friday, prompting
administrators mindful of the massacre at Virginia Tech to order a
swift shutdown of the campus while police searched for the gunman.
Police identified two students as “persons of interest,”
questioning both of them, while students remained locked in their
dorms and officers lowered gates to keep anyone from coming onto
the campus of the 3,690-student historically black university.
“The biggest lesson learned from that whole situation at
Virginia Tech is don’t wait. Once you have an incident, start
notifying the community,” said university spokesman Carlos Holmes.
The shooting, reported to police at 12:54 a.m., happened as a
group of students were returning from an on-campus cafe. A
17-year-old male student was in stable condition; a female student,
also 17, was shot in the abdomen and in serious condition.
The two students were shot on the Campus Mall, between the
Memorial Hall gymnasium and Richard S. Grossley Hall, an
administrative building. Investigators believed the shootings may
have been preceded by an argument at the cafe, and Holmes said it
did not appear to be random.
The male student, who was wounded in the ankle, refused to
answer questions by police about the shootings, raising the
likelihood that he knew his attacker, according to a federal law
enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because
the investigation was ongoing.
Campus officials acted much more swiftly than officials at
Virginia Tech did five months ago, when administrators delayed
notifying students nearly two hours after gunman Seung-Hui Cho
killed his first two victims. By then, he had already started
shooting 30 other people in a classroom building across campus.
A report by a panel appointed by Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine
concluded that lives could have been saved if alerts had been sent
out earlier and classes canceled after Cho killed his first two
victims.
At Delaware State, officials didn’t wait. Within about 20
minutes of the shooting being reported to police, even as the
victims were being taken to hospitals, campus police and residence
hall advisers were telling students to stay in their dorm rooms,
although not all were told there had been a shooting.
By 2:11 a.m., campus police Chief James Overton was meeting with
another university official to discuss the school’s response.
Notices were posted in dormitories and the school Web site by about
2:40 a.m., and the decision to cancel classes was made shortly
after 5 a.m., well before the school day started.
The shootings happened under different circumstances. The
Virginia Tech rampage began at 7 a.m. as students thronged the
campus and headed to morning classes; at Delaware State, it
happened in the middle of the night, when many students were in
their dorm rooms.
The panel that investigated the response to the Virginia Tech
shootings noted that it would have been tough to shut down the
2,600-acre Tech campus; Delaware State is only about 400 acres. But
it appears Delaware State responded to the crisis well, said Gerald
Massengill, who led the group.
“I think just like post-9/11, there’s a post-April 16
mentality,” he said.
Alex Bishoff, 20, a freshman from Washington, D.C., said he
heard five gunshots and looked out his dormitory window to see
people scattering. He said he immediately thought of the Virginia
Tech shootings last April.
Students were warned within about 15 minutes, Bishoff said. “I
think they handled it pretty well,” he said.
Timmara Gooden, 20, of Philadelphia, said in a phone interview
from her dorm room that she and her suite mates kept each other
calm and were making sure that their parents understand that
they’re OK.
Students weren’t even going into their dorm hallways. “We don’t
want to walk out there, because we don’t know what’s going on,”
Gooden said.
Students were still being advised Friday afternoon to remain in
their dorms, but were being escorted to the cafeteria for meals.
Officials also made arrangements for students who wanted to leave
campus for the weekend, during which hordes of race fans and
recreational vehicles converge on the town for NASCAR action across
the street at Dover Downs Speedway.
University president Allen Sessoms emphasized the shooting was
not random.
“This is an internal problem,” said Sessoms. “There are no
externalities … this is just kids who did very, very stupid
things.”
At the start of the semester, the campus held a memorial service
for three students and an incoming student who were shot
execution-style Aug. 4 as they hung out at an elementary school in
their hometown of Newark, N.J. Natasha Aeriel, 19; her brother,
Terrance Aeriel, 18, and Dashon Harvey, 20, were students. Iofemi
Hightower, 20, had planned to attend Delaware State this fall.
Natasha Aeriel, the only survivor, helped police identify six
suspects who have been arrested.
Holmes said there was no indication that Friday’s shooting was
related in any way to the Newark, N.J., killings. Both of the
victims in Friday’s shootings were from the Washington, D.C., area,
officials said.