CASPER – Casper College and city officials say a suspect used a “sharp-edged weapon” to kill two people in Casper, one a college faculty member, in two separate attacks, including one in a Casper College classroom.
The suspect, who wasn’t a student, then committed suicide with an edged weapon in the same classroom where the suspect killed one of the victims, said Casper Police Chief Chris Walsh.
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Walsh wouldn’t identify the dead pending notification of next of kin.
It appears there was some relationship between the three dead although he said there’s no confirmation of a blood relationship and a motive for the attacks wasn’t clear, Walsh said. The attacks don’t appear to be “school-motivated,” according to a press release from city officials.
No suspects are at large and nobody else was injured in the attacks, Walsh said earlier Friday.
Asked about reports from students that a bow and arrow were used in the attacks and suicide, Walsh said an “edged weapon” was used but wouldn’t specifically identify what weapons were involved in the attacks. No firearms were used, he said.
Police have blocked off the 3700-3800 block of Hawthorne Avenue in Casper. Late morning radio scanner traffic and on-scene reports indicated a dead body was on the street, located approximately in the middle of the block. A county coroner transport vehicle and a hazardous materials team arrived at the scene at about 1 p.m.
A resident on the block told a Star-Tribune reporter she noticed the body was barefoot and clad in pajamas.
Police first responded to the campus’s Wold Physical Science Center at about 9 a.m. Friday morning. Police and college officials locked down the campus and police sealed and searched the physical science center.
The college is now no longer on lockdown, but police are barring anyone from entering the physical science center or the adjoining life science center until their investigation has concluded.
Officials called for ambulances from the Wyoming Medical Center shortly after 9 a.m., but no patients were transported or treated at the Wyoming Medical Center, Walsh and hospital spokeswoman Mel Schwartz said.
College student Delina Barbosa was in the same building and same floor where the incident occurred Friday morning, attending a morning chemistry class. At about 9:10 a.m. a college secretary pounded on the door, then gestured to students.
“You guys need to evacuate right now. This is not a drill,” the secretary said, according to Barbosa. Barbosa said she didn’t hear any commotion prior to the secretary’s notice. Barbosa and the other left class and were ushered to Liesinger Hall, the student center.
Roommates Courtney Suko and Shannan Pyer, both freshmen, were in a biology lecture hall in the physical science building when a woman came into the room and told the class to leave.
Suko and Pyer grabbed their bags and ran for the door. They both thought it was a drill.
“I didn’t think it was anything shocking or anything like that,” Pyer said.
When they got outside, they saw that police had already assembled.
“You’re wondering if someone would jump out and have a gun or something,” Suko said.
The class planned to assemble in a nearby building, but later moved to the Liesinger building, further from where the incident happened.
As Pyer and Suko waited to be released, they said they saw a girl crying in the same room. The girl told them that she’d been in the room where everything happened. She said she saw a student shoot a professor with a bow and arrow and stab him with something repeatedly.
Pyer said despite the stories circulating, she felt safer knowing she was in a large group further from the physical science building.
Natrona County School District officials put the district’s schools on lockdown after news of the incident, and the Wyoming Medical Center was put on lockdown for 30 minutes Friday morning. The district lifted the lockdown on all schools at 10:30 a.m.
Counselors are available on the second floor of the campus Gateway Building on a walk-in basis, Casper College said on its Facebook page. College employees without duties related to the attack may close their offices and leave campus, the college said.
