[Last updated 9/15/2015, 1:24 a.m.]
A professor was shot to death in his office at Delta State University on Monday, The Clarion-Ledger reported, and another faculty member whom the police had pursued as a suspect for most of the day was said to have killed himself on Monday night.
The victim was identified as Ethan A. Schmidt, an assistant professor of history, and the suspected shooter was identified as Shannon S. Lamb, an assistant professor of geography and social-science education.
The Mississippi campus was under lockdown for hours on Monday, with classes canceled. The Associated Press reported on Monday afternoon that the police believed the suspect was no longer on the campus.
In a late-day news conference described by the AP, the police said they had spoken to Mr. Lamb, who vowed that he was “not going to jail.” The police did not say how they had contacted the suspect, but they reiterated that he should be regarded as armed and dangerous. Then, shortly after midnight, the AP published a short news alert saying the suspect was dead. The Clarion-Ledger quoted law-enforcement officials as saying he had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The Sun Herald reported that Mr. Lamb, 45, had also been identified as a suspect in the fatal shooting of a woman — 41-year-old Amy Prentiss — at a home they shared in Gautier, Miss., some 300 miles southeast of the university, which is in Cleveland, Miss.
Police officers in neither city said what they thought had motivated either slaying, the AP reported.
According to an online bio, Mr. Schmidt, who was 39, earned his Ph.D. at the University of Kansas and taught several courses in American history. Here’s a brief profile of Mr. Schmidt on the American Historical Association’s blog, from 2013.
