February 8, 2008

3 Dead in Shooting at Louisiana Technical College in Baton Rouge

Updated at 1:20 p.m.

A female student shot and killed two classmates and then herself this morning in a classroom at Louisiana Technical College’s Baton Rouge campus, United Press International reported.

Police officers responding to a 911 call around 8:30 a.m. found the three already dead. Twenty other people were in the classroom at the time, the police said. The women’s identities have not been released, but the shooter was 23 years old, while the victims were 21 and 26.

In a notice posted on its Web site, the college said a motive for the shootings was not known. The college also said it was cooperating with the police in the investigation. Classes have been canceled for the day, and counselors are being made available to support students, their families, and members of the faculty and staff. —Beckie Supiano

Comments

1. crazy lady

   — lana    Feb 8, 12:22 PM    #

2. Crazy world.

   — DJP    Feb 8, 12:24 PM    #

3. I hate the fact that I imagine a small, random percentage of my students as potential killers now.

   — morris    Feb 8, 01:52 PM    #

4. i was actually shocked. i thought we were better than those cazy yankee people up north. guess not

   — jpb    Feb 8, 02:54 PM    #

5. people these days

   — that's crazy people these days    Feb 8, 03:02 PM    #

6. JPB, you have got to be kidding. I hope with that attitude you don’t work in higher education.

   — jeff    Feb 8, 03:37 PM    #

7. I will lift the families of those affected in prayer and ask that those who understand and respect the power of prayer do likewise!

   — Faith    Feb 8, 03:40 PM    #

8. This on the heels of the City Council shooting in Kirkwood. Thank you, NRA.

   — Ken T.    Feb 8, 03:47 PM    #

9. If another student had carried a gun, maybe the only casualty would be the deranged woman who killed herself. Thank you, NRA.

   — DavidA    Feb 8, 03:55 PM    #

10. This will continue to happen as long as we have such easy access to guns in this country. We are all at risk, every day.

    — JFMeyer    Feb 8, 03:55 PM    #

11. jpb… you must be pretty far south to consider Blacksburg VA to be “up north”

    — jjg    Feb 8, 04:00 PM    #

12. Bubba speaks.. It looks to me like professors need to carry weapons concealed for just in case.. times have gotten rotten since they took away the ten comandments.. one of them being thou shalt not murder!

    — Bubba    Feb 8, 04:01 PM    #

13. David A—two trained and experienced police officers in Kirkwood, MO died trying to stop one man with a gun. A student or professor with a gun would have been worse. What we don’t need is classrooms full of guns.

    — Don    Feb 8, 04:04 PM    #

14. What we don’t need is numbers of mentally challenged and disturbed people walking around nursing real or imagined grudges, with guns or other weapons. These people need HELP. The most promising development was passage of a law to include the medical records of such people in NICS records checks. But only, unfortunately, after Va Tech. Ranting about the NRA is no help at all. There are 100 million legal gun owners here, and the number involved in gun crimes is tiny.

    — RC    Feb 8, 04:18 PM    #

15. I’ve been shot. I’ve talked at great length with people of many ideologies since then.

    I always think someone pretty smart should look into “why.” I know that asking why is envisioned first and is a trap, but nonethless someone smart should.

    Most of the responses are “how can we (physically) make them stop.”

    I am more interested in “how can we (ideologically) make them stop.”

    If it was relationship trouble, we should consider teaching “conflict resolution” or “dating safely.”

    If it was a drug deal, we should consider selling drugs in safe venues.

    If it was another category, we should learn about that.

    — aubrey mcintosh    Feb 8, 04:20 PM    #

16. Yesterday, the South Dakota House overwhelmingly (63-3) passed a bill to allow students at SD institutions of higher education to carry firearms in accordance with state law.

    — Toni    Feb 8, 04:27 PM    #

17. Stop blaming the NRA. Blame the shooters, but not the NRA. They did not shoot anyone. Maybe her liberal professors taught her to blame others too.

    — Vincent    Feb 8, 04:38 PM    #

18. Shooting in America will get worse before our elected officials wake up or are voted out! Internal shooting is one of the greatest security threats to America. We all need to become vigilant in identifying and helping people who are disturbed, mentally sick, displeased, homeless, hopeless, helpless, etc. What roles are our rich ministers and churches playing besides just praying?

    — OAO    Feb 8, 04:46 PM    #

19. it’s the price we pay for living in a free society… if it wasn’t gun it would have been something else

    — mjb    Feb 8, 04:50 PM    #

20. It’s okay to blame liberals, but not the NRA? Makes sense…if you’re Rush Limbaugh. There are so many things in society that produce things like this, but the fact is that nothing will change until we start to learn more about mental illness. We also have to be able to get help for people that need it, and America is sorely lacking in mental health access, whether the person is conservative or liberal, black or white, Democrat or Republican, northern or southern. So, let’s get real!

    — BNG    Feb 8, 05:04 PM    #

21. yeah, but if it wasn’t a gun… I’d imagine I would be a bit more successful defending myself against a club or knife with a room full of people. Guns may not kill people… but they HELP A LOT!

    — WW    Feb 8, 05:13 PM    #

22. damn

    — alt    Feb 8, 05:51 PM    #

23. I own a gun and love to shoot. But fact is, I grew up in Northern Europe with lots of deranged humans around and we didn’t have these incidents …we had gun control

    — Dr.V.    Feb 8, 06:28 PM    #

24. What a tragic. I have created a tribute at Respectance.com . Friends and families can leave their thoughts and feelings.

    — Meih    Feb 8, 07:06 PM    #

25. Don’t blame NRA, blame liberal Hollywood promoting culture of violence.

    — Mark de Goz    Feb 8, 07:09 PM    #

26. What about the culture of violence in which we now are immersed? Walk into Blockbuster and note how violence and sex dominate the shelves of the new selections. Check out the amount of shots taken on TV shows. And think about our exaltation of violent solutions to international relationships.
    We should be surprised there are not MORE shootings.

    Are there statistics about shootings across the nation? How do they compare with Canada, Mexico, European countries?

    — BE!    Feb 8, 07:10 PM    #

27. More guns are more likely to cause more problems. Don’t we already have enough suicides, fights, drunks, and disgruntled students on campuses now? And you want to arm them? Not to mention an expected rise in burglaries and lost guns. You’re more likely to get shot with a stolen gun, or by a vigilante, than by a nut with a gun. I hate to say this, but perhaps we should consider creating another bureaucracy and require that gun owners carry liability insurance. The fees could be used to pay for added security, medical expenses for victims, and safety programs.

    — Firstsai    Feb 8, 07:19 PM    #

28. Even with gun control, the person who wants the gun can get a gun. The more these stories are portrayed in the media, the more we are desensitized to situations like this.

    — rburn    Feb 8, 07:24 PM    #

29. If those 20 other people in the classroom were carrying a concealed weapon, as is permitted by LA law, This tragedy may have been avoided.

    — Bored_Watcher    Feb 8, 08:07 PM    #

30. What antidepressant was the shooter taking?

    — Patti Ellis    Feb 8, 08:33 PM    #

31. Early identification, support and assistance were needed before she took desperate actions. This student should have been identified and counseled.

    — cvk    Feb 8, 09:13 PM    #

32. Let’s see, how about the elites of my society raising the poorest 1/7th so they are without parents, without healthcare, and without education. Then let’s sell them drugs and guns. Then let their “culture” spread via mass media to fringes of the middle and upper class—mostly those addicted to something or otherwise out of control. Then let’s spread like butter a Univ. of Chicago style ideology of everyone for himself, let markets do what they might, and via mass media a culture of celebrity and CEO worship, and fawning before wealth—turning normal people into nobodies, day in and day out on their own media.

    I wonder what would happen? How surprising! The disgruntled kill me! How amazing! Who would have thought!

    Only Americans can get surprised by all of this. Only poor poor pitiful self righteous Americans. An elite Oh So Innovative via the route of an elite Oh So detached from caring for the entire population.

    — Richard Tabor Greene    Feb 9, 12:36 AM    #

33. Why does this keep happening in US an rarely (close to never) in Europe? Because we have strict gun control! I get terrified when I hear people say they need MORE guns to avoid this!! If somebody should be able to stop this shooting they would probably have to sit ready to shoot when she came in. If people have to walk around with their hand on the gun you are back in the wild west. Do you want that kind of society?

    — European    Feb 9, 02:09 AM    #

34. Nursing programs and faculty work in a highly tense atmosphere. That’s the nature of the profession and most of the women that get involved. Somebody needs to calm the programs and the people DOWN a notch because the situation is the same everywhere.

    — Etta B    Feb 9, 12:41 PM    #

35. Arming profs won’t help. Check it out: about 1/3 cops who are killed each year are killed with their own weapons. If cops can’t keep their guns, don’t tell me little ole profs will be able to.

    — LM    Feb 9, 02:22 PM    #

36. Another gun free zone. How could this happen?

    — Tom    Feb 9, 07:25 PM    #

37. americans, and i hate to stereotype. but since most of you seem to be mental slaves to corporate news i guess i will. the media and govt is always talking about terrorist. guess what america is the breeding ground for terrorist. get use to it. i dont fear “isamic terrorist” i fear american terrorist. when the troops get home get home theyll be psychotic 2. o what a tangled web we weave.

    — fela    Feb 9, 08:15 PM    #

38. I love this quote:

    “i thought we were better than those cazy yankee people up north.”

    Nice one “jpb”

    At least this “cazy yankee” knows how to speak proper english.

    Have fun with your banjo…

    — Gabe    Feb 10, 12:47 AM    #

39. More trauma everyday…There is no safe place anywhere. What is happening in this time and age, violence everywhere. We (educators) must promote peace and harmony in our lectures on a daily basis. This is to remind our students that we need to treasure the world that we live in.

    — Doris Martin    Feb 11, 01:21 AM    #

40. Everyone always looks for someone to blame when these events happen, that’s how we heal. But, I can tell you that the NRA doesn’t support senseless shootings. They promote safety, education, most of all that all gun owners carry legally. If you do research, you will find that almost all shooters of this type obtain guns illegally, which will never stop in this country. I live very close to Kirkwood and know several Officers there. Of course when it first happened I was looking at what or who to blame. We should only blame ourselves for not paying closer attention to people’s breaking point. Some don’t have the ability to overcome trauma (emotional or physically) single handed. From my experience it may only take one person to pay attention, show some interest in someone else’s life to stop them from going over the edge. In every shooting case of this type, these people were singled out, picked on, shoved aside. They were going to be heard, it was just up to us when we were finally going to listen. Now, I’m not saying we can save the world by any means but just stop and think, with all the hustle and bustle, why not just take a second out of our busy lives and “Be nice to someone for no other reason than just to be nice.” Educate each and every person we come into contact with, by doing nothing other than smiling. It’s not a fix all by any means, but for all the selfish people in this world who would just like to complain about it and not do anything to fix it. Think about it this way; you’re walking from one area of your place of employment to another and as you pass by the “quiet guy or gal” you chose to pass by and not say a word because they are creepy, you are now a static. You could however; pass by and at least smile and that may have been the only thing that took you off the “hit list”. We create our own hell, so stop complaining about it and do something.

    — Higher Education Police Officer    Feb 11, 08:49 AM    #

41. If someone truely wanted to kill, how can you stop them?…..If 20 people were in the class and say 5 had guns, the death toll would have increased. No one would have known who to shot…Not to mention, HOW…..

    — Laylaw    Feb 11, 12:45 PM    #

42. Remember…This is a place for high education. All involved were in nursing school, so who would have thought, that the environment in which they were all a part of, was unsafe….

    — Laylaw    Feb 11, 12:57 PM    #

43. You people are drinking too much of that swamp water. I think your gumbo has been mixed with steriods or something. I know, I know, PRAISE THE LORD, AND PASS THE AMMUNITION. Get real people, we live in a very voilent country. We destoyed a counrty (Iraq) in the name of DEMOCRACY, BUT PRAISE THE LORD!!!

    — Darryl    Feb 11, 05:55 PM    #

44. I’m not afraid of all the people with guns. I’m afraid of all the mentally unstable people who have been released from mental institutions in the past 30 years. They are everywhere. Most of them are members of the left wing, and HATE anyone who is patriotic, worships God, and votes conservative. See Darryl’s post above.

    — Rondo    Feb 11, 11:20 PM    #

45. Rondo – you are so right!

    — Rita    Feb 12, 09:57 AM    #

46. Thank you, NRA? What an idiotic statement. If that’s the best commentary you can come up with, you’re pathetic.

    — Sharon G.    Feb 12, 10:47 AM    #

47. This was not a random shooting. It was a premeditated double homicide/suicide. The shooter shot the two people she intended to shoot, then herself. If it was a “spree”, she would have shot many more. Remember, she had to reload to shoot herself. She never even looked ant anyone else in the class. Could this have been a love triangle? Regardless, the “nannies” will try to use it to keep the rest of us from protecting ourselves. The only time I’m ashamed of America is when the idiotic elitists spew their vitriolic hatred for anyone to the right of their own twisted position. They are open minded as long as one agrees with everything their socialist, elitist imagination can conjure up. In words that only a left wing pseudo-intellectual can appreciate, they are totally full of male, bovine excrement. How’s that for politically correct?

    — Rondo    Feb 12, 02:57 PM    #

48. Can we please stop this “liberal” finger pointing. It’s silly and doesn’t solve anything. Nothing irks me more than when I hear nonsense like that. People are people, I can easily say that the KKK was full of conservatives who hated black people, or Jews, etc. Does that mean that everytime something happens I think “Those conservatives! This is all their fault”

    actually…………..

    — Marjorie D    Feb 13, 05:29 PM    #

49. More Guns, Less Crime <- excellent, well researched book

    — jd    Feb 13, 06:09 PM    #

50. Honestly, the violence in our courtry is not the NRA, consertives or liberals fault, it is the lack of caring for one another. We as individuals have become selfcentered and selfserving. As a socity we are becoming less and less responsible for ourselves. Yes the terrorisim is frightening, but you have to look at it as they have a “cause” for their reliegon or people. The shootings we are experiencing have no greater cause than to vindicate ones own feelings. Read the posted comments, you will see the hate and discontent right here. Kindness, careing, understanding & responsibility where has it gone?

    — Betty D    Feb 14, 07:54 PM    #

51. Indeed, betty makes a point. It is society that is to blame. We walk around daily, ignoring each other’s feelings, and then when some thing like this occurs, we try to blame others. Blame yourselves, perhaps you should try talking to these kids, or your own children for that matter. These things keep happening because of the increasing decline in moral fiber in this country. We will continue on this decline, until children begin killing their parrents at home. Consider these things the next time you are rude or mean to someone. How about lending a loving hand to your fellow humans and quit being so self-centered.

    — Who    Feb 14, 08:39 PM    #

52. Any policeman will tell you that there would be less crime if EVERYONE carried a gun. People are just a lot more polite when they know that there could be a bloodbath if they’re not. “Gun control” is the modern terminology for when an expanding government attempts to remove the people’s rights and abilities to defend themselves, forcing them to be completely dependent and subserviant to the government. “When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.” – Thomas Jefferson

    — Adam    Feb 14, 10:23 PM    #

53. It’s NOT the gun, it is the PERSON! Get a clue! Policy needs to be implemented at the highest level regarding SECURITY in general… as well as campus policy and psych evaluations for students…you can thank the lawyers, lenient judges and complacent policing for perpetuating crimes, as well as criminals themselves, NOT RESPONSIBLE gun owners!

    — Skyfox    Feb 15, 04:39 AM    #

54. Ignorance breeds hate and hate breeds ignorance…MANY posts here full of hatred and anger…this and other shootings and violence, even home beatings of family are deeper symptoms of societal breakdown! MANY people in Hawaii have guns but they have FAR less blatant shootings than on the mainland…
    Change your own spirit and change the world!!!

    — Skyfox    Feb 15, 04:44 AM    #

55. there would be less crime if EVERYONE carried a gun

    Yeah right.
    Would there be less knife wounds if everyone carried knives, huh ?

    Most all the rest of the world controls guns strictly and gun crime is way lower.
    The USA worships firearms and makes it easy for anyone feeling pissed to take another person’s life.

    — U Row Peen    Feb 15, 06:44 AM    #

56. Crime might be lower if everyone carried guns, but suicides, accidental shootings, gun thefts, and duels would increase, not to mention more lively classroom debates.

    — Damajah    Feb 21, 07:22 AM    #

57. “Blame the NRA.” What idiots. Like it or not, gun ownership is a constitutionally protected right—explicit in the Bill of Rights, unlike liberals’ own sad secular sacrament, abortion—and while they can whine and moan about gun owners and the NRA, there isn’t much they can do about it. The last time they tried, they had their rear ends handed to them politically. And this is why I give money to the NRA—they are the most effective political lobby in Washington, and stand between us and those sissified libs who would trample the Constitution for ideological or emotional reasons.

    These spree shootings receive saturation coverage, but are hardly where the problem of violence in this country lies. Statistically, they make up a minute portion of gun-related violence.

    Every right is open to abuse. That isn’t reason enough to invalidate the right.

    — The Hamster of Love    Feb 26, 01:54 PM    #

Previous: Professors Strike at Uganda's Makerere U.
Next: Shooting at Tech College in South Carolina Turns Out to Be Accidental