A campus law enforcement officer and a campus safety officer at Virginia’s Bridgewater College were shot and killed on Tuesday, according to the school. The alleged shooter is in custody, Virginia State Police said.
The school identified the two victims as campus safety officer J.J. Jefferson and campus police officer John Painter.
“Today our campus community experienced unspeakable tragedy. Two members of the Bridgewater College family were senselessly and violently taken from us,” the school wrote in an email to students and faculty. “The sadness is palpable. Words are not adequate, not nearly so, to express the grief, sadness, fear and — justifiably — the anger we all feel.”
According to Bridgewater college, the two men were good friends, with Painter even serving as Jefferson’s best man at his wedding this year.
Police on Tuesday night identified the suspect as Alexander Wyatt Campbell of Ashland, Virginia. He has been charged with four felonies, including capital murder, police spokesperson Corrine Geller said. Police and school officials would not comment on any relationship the suspect may have had with the school.
Geller said that Campbell was reported to campus security for suspicious activity because he was “in a location he should not have been.” When the two officers approached him, he shot at both officers, Geller said.
Painter was armed, but Jefferson was not, according to Bridgewater College President David Bushman.
Campbell fled the campus on foot and tried to escape to an island in Bridgewater by wading through a river, Geller said. Officers tracked him to the island, where he was taken into custody.
Campbell was taken into custody around 1:55 p.m., roughly 30 minutes after the shooting was reported, the school said.
Officers from Bridgewater College Police, Bridgewater Police, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office, Harrisonburg Police, the Augusta Sheriff’s Office, Dayton Police and the FBI responded to the scene.
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