Students in a community college classroom looked on as a man wielding a sharp-edged weapon killed a teacher and himself, causing a campus-wide lockdown. The assailant had killed another person elsewhere shortly before the attack at the school, authorities said.
Police on Friday found the suspect and the male teacher dead at a science building on the Casper College campus, which was locked down for about two hours, school and police officials said. The other victim was found about 3km away.
Police chief Chris Walsh said the murder-suicide took place in a classroom with students present, but he did not know how many students or what the class topic was.
He said investigators do not know the motive for the killings.
Walsh said an “edged weapon” was used it at least one of the killings, but he did not offer specifics, and it was not clear if the same or a similar weapon was used in all of the deaths.
The attacker was not believed to be a Casper College student and it appeared he knew the victims, Walsh said.
He did not identify the suspect or victims, but said the victims were a male and a female.
He added authorities do not believe there is any further threat to the community.
“I want to emphasize that this is a horrible tragedy,” Walsh said. “And I want the city to ... just feel safe right now. There is no one at large.”
Casper is Wyoming’s second-largest city with a population of about 56,000. Wyoming residents refer to it as the “Oil City” because it is a hub for the state’s oil industry.
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