Murder-Suicide At USC Leaves Two Dead
Two people are dead at USC after the university was on lockdown on Thursday. Fox News confirms that police officials in SWAT gear responded to the University of South Carolina campus in Columbia after a shooter took the life of one other person along with himself.
The details of this horrible tragedy are still being released to the media and can fluctuate as information is gathered, so right now it’s not entirely known as to why the shooting took place. Furthermore, the identities of the two deceased persons have not been released. SLED officials held a press conference this afternoon to address the shooting.
SLED PIO addressing media. ‘Appears to be a murder-suicide.. Isolated incident at USC school of health.’ pic.twitter.com/AOxv1YUVRl
— Cola Police Dept. SC (@ColumbiaPDSC) February 5, 2015
The incident reportedly took place around 1:20 p.m. at the New School of Public Health Research Building on the USC campus. The entire campus was put on lockdown when it had been made apparent that a shooter was on the premises and that a shooting had taken place. When SWAT officers arrived on the scene, they conducted a full sweep of the campus with AR-15s, which confirmed that there were no other shooters and that the sole perpetrator had committed suicide after committing a single murder.
ABC News confirms that the threat is now over at the Columbia campus. The entire ordeal took all of about one hour from the time police responded to the scene. Classes have been cancelled at the campus for the remainder of the day.
Park@College,Assembly@ College closed to traffic. Emergency @USC school of health. CPD assisting. pic.twitter.com/RCPkYVwBBa
— Cola Police Dept. SC (@ColumbiaPDSC) February 5, 2015
There have been more than 74 school shootings since December 2012 — when Adam Lanza took the lives of 28 people, including over 20 school children. However, this incident doesn’t appear to be in the same vein as school shootings such as Columbine and Sandy Hook. This particular school shooting is an apparent isolated event, but it must be noted that this is not the only murder-suicide to rock the campus. In November of last year, a young, promising female criminology student was murdered by another student — a young man. While the tragedy didn’t take place directly on the campus, it involved students at USC and took place adjacent to the school.
[Photo credit: Neon Tommy]
