Gun in deadly shooting on campus registered to suspect's dad, police say
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. -- The gun used in a shooting at a Central Michigan University dormitory that left a student's parents dead was registered to the suspect's dad, according to police. The 19-year-old student, James Eric Davis Jr., who is suspected of killing his parents, was arrested early Saturday morning after someone saw him on train tracks shortly after midnight, police said.
The university identified the two dead as Davis' mother, Diva Davis, and father, James Davis Sr., a part-time police officer in the Chicago suburb of Bellwood. Davis Sr. was an Iraq war veteran and friends say the suspect's mother was a breast cancer survivor, CBS News' DeMarco Morgan reports.
Central Michigan University police Chief Bill Yeagley told reporters that the gun used in the shooting belonged Davis Sr.
The shooting occurred at a residence hall at Central Michigan, which is about 70 miles north of Lansing. Police released a photo of Davis and urged the public to call 911 if they saw him, but also warned that he shouldn't be confronted. Hours after a campus lockdown, police started a "slow, methodical removal" of staff and students who were ordered to take shelter in campus buildings, Lt. Larry Klaus said, adding that he "should be considered armed and dangerous."
Klaus said video at the dorm suggested that Davis had fled on foot after the shooting. He was wearing a hoodie but had been shedding certain clothes while on the run.
"This has been a tragic day. ... The hurting will go on for a while," Ross said.
Klaus said Davis was taken to a hospital Thursday night by campus police because of a drug-related health problem, possibly an overdose.
"Whether there was a mental health component that was in conjunction with that, we don't know," Klaus told reporters, adding that police were still putting together "pieces of the puzzle" about the shooting and any motive.