(Washington) Two security guards were killed Tuesday on the campus of a small private university in Virginia, in the eastern United States, by a gunman who was later arrested, local authorities said.
Posted at 9:15 p.m.
“We all have so many questions and so few answers” about the tragedy, Bridgewater University President David Bushman said in a statement, adding that the two victims, John Painter and JJ Jefferson, were friends and “ loved by students, teachers and employees”.
The two agents had intervened at the beginning of the afternoon following the report of a “suspicious” man on campus. “After a brief exchange, the suspect opened fire and shot the two officers,” Virginia police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said at a press conference Tuesday evening.
He then fled before being arrested and his weapons found, she said.
The motive of the alleged shooter, Alexander Wyatt Campbell, 27 and a resident of Virginia, remains unknown. He was shot and wounded without the police knowing at this stage if he inflicted this wound on himself or if he was hit during a possible exchange of fire with the two officers killed.
He received hospital treatment before being charged with four counts and held without the possibility of bail, Ms.me Freeze.
The investigation is ongoing, she concluded.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said in a statement that he was “heartbroken this evening by the tragic loss” of these two men whose mission was to “protect university students and teachers”. Mr. Youngkin ordered the flags to be lowered to half-mast on Wednesday in their honor.
The courses of this university will also be canceled on Wednesday, said the president of the establishment during the press conference.
This private university, two and a half hours southwest of the capital Washington, has about 1,500 students and has its own force of six officers, according to its website.