Shooting deaths shake Delta State community
Delta State University canceled classes Tuesday as authorities sought to determine why a geography teacher went on a shooting spree that left three people, including a "star" of the Mississippi school's faculty, dead.
Shannon Lamb, 45, apparently shot his live-in girlfriend, Amy Prentiss, 41, in Gautier, Miss., early Monday, then drove 300 miles to the university campus in Cleveland, Miss., where he confronted and killed assistant history professor Ethan Schmidt, police said. Hours later, with police closing in on him, Lamb fatally shot himself, police said.
Lamb's death ended a harrowing day of lockdowns, SWAT teams and building-by-building searches at the 3,500-student campus. The lockdowns began shortly before 11 a.m. CT Monday. Students, faculty and staff were advised to take shelter. School authorities and police evacuated students building by building, and Monday classes were canceled.
"Thanks to all law enforcement, faculty and staff who put safety of our students first today," the school tweeted after the threat has passed. "We grieve & heal as one. #StatesmenStrong"
The school had planned a daylong celebration for Tuesday marking Delta State's 90th anniversary. A vigil for Schmidt and Prentiss will replace the Tuesday evening festivities.
Student Charlie King said he was in class at Jobe Hall and heard the shots. Minutes later police entered the classroom and warned everyone to get away from the door. Later they were ushered out of the building. King said Schmidt was his faculty adviser,
"I looked up to the man," King said.
As news of the shooting spread, Lamb's friends on Facebook pleaded for him to turn himself in to police.
"I'm in shock and I really don't know what else to say. Listen to everyone and please turn yourself in," Sangie Butler Alford posted on the social network.
Tommy Akers wrote, "Man, just turn yourself in bro!! Don't do anything to yourself or anyone else..."
But police officers, who had contact with Lamb following the shootings, said Lamb told them he had no intention of going to jail.
Hours after shooting Schmidt, Lamb was spotted driving through Greenville, Miss.Officers there tried to pull him over. Police say Lamb stopped, got out of the vehicle and fled on foot.
Officers heard a shot and found Lamb with an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, Cleveland Police Chief Charles Bingham said.
People who knew Lamb said they were shocked to learn the geography teacher had killed a colleague. Cameron Montgomery, a business teacher at the school, called Lamb "a nice guy"
"I said it couldn't be him, it just couldn't be him," Montgomery told WAPT-TV.
Delta State President William LaForge said Lamb was a faculty member who taught online geography courses. He said Lamb had expressed some difficulty with a medical situation. LaForge said he did not know Lamb personally.
LaForge said he knew Schmidt, 39, very well. They met two years ago when they were both new to the campus.
"He did a tremendous job as a history professor," LaForge said. "I thought the world of him. He was a star on our faculty at Delta State."
LaForge said both Lamb and Schmidt worked in the same department on campus. "They knew each other," he said.
Schmidt wrote in an American Historical Association profile that he grew up in a family that valued history. His father collected Civil War and 19th Century Kansas memorabilia, and both parents were involved in historic preservation. Most recently, according to his profile, he was working on two projects involving the Native American experience.
"I value the fact that inquiry for the sake of inquiry is honored in the profession," he wrote. "We never accept the conventional wisdom or current paradigm as an acceptable answer."
Contributing: Melanie Eversley, Paste BN