(Washington) Two security guards were killed on Tuesday by a gunman on the campus of a small private university in Virginia, United States, while a student was shot dead and another injured outside a school in Minnesota.
Updated yesterday at 11:22 p.m.
“Another senseless shooting has taken the lives of two brave officers,” tweeted President Joe Biden. “Gun violence against law enforcement officers is despicable and must end.”
The two agents killed in Virginia, identified as John Painter and JJ Jefferson by the president of Bridgewater University, had intervened in the early 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.
The motive of the alleged shooter, Alexander Wyatt Campbell, 27 and a resident of Virginia, remains unknown. He was shot and wounded, but the police do not know at this stage if he self-inflicted the wound 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.
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said in a statement that he was “heartbroken tonight at the tragic loss” of the two men and ordered the flags lowered Wednesday in their honor.
This private university, two and a half hours southwest of the capital Washington, has about 1,500 students, according to its website.
In Richfield, Minnesota, two students were shot around noon while on the sidewalk near the entrance to their school, local police said.
“One of the two students succumbed to his injuries, the other remains in critical condition,” she said.
Two people were arrested and a weapon recovered, she then announced.
According to the newspaper StarTribunethe teenager killed was the son of Cortez Rice, identified by the media as an activist within the movement “Black Lives Matter” (the life of blacks counts).
“We need to act to get guns off the streets and to prevent violent crime,” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz tweeted.