A Purdue University senior from Wisconsin is dead and another student is in custody on suspicion of murder following a shooting on the university campus in West LaFayette, Ind., according to school officials.
The gunman walked into a basement classroom of the Electrical Engineering building around noon while a class was going on, school and law enforcement officials said at a news conference. Classes were cancelled for the rest of Tuesday and for Wednesday, officials said.
The victim was identified as Andrew F. Boldt, 21, a senior from West Bend, Wis., who also was a teaching assistant, Purdue University Police Chief John Cox said.
The suspect, who appeared to have targeted Boldt, was identified as Cody M. Cousins, 23, a student in the college of engineering at Purdue, Cox said. He has been booked into the Tippecanoe County Jail on suspicion of murder, according to jail records. Records show Cousins is from Centerville, Ohio and Warsaw, Ind., Cox said.
The attacker did not appear to be randomly targeting students, officials said.
“The suspect came into the building, walked to the classroom, shot the individual and walked out,” said school spokesman Greg McClure in an earlier news conference. He then walked outside and surrendered to police.
“This is not your typical active shooter. This appears to be an isolated and intentional act,” Cox said in the evening news conference. “We have developed information through several witnesses that the victim appeared to have been targeted by the suspect and it was no more, no less than that.”
“The suspect was apprehended on the east side of the Electrical Engineering building just outside the building,” McClure said.
He said police believe the shooter was targeting the man he shot and “there was no effort to target anyone else.”
“Nobody else was wounded or hit by gunfire, it was just the person who was killed,” McClure said.
Police said there was no argument or fight before the shooting.
