UPDATE 3:21pm
From an all-campus e-mail:
This is an update of the emergency notification sent earlier this afternoon. A Wesleyan student was fatally shot at Red and Black Café this afternoon. The name of the student will be released upon notification of her immediate family. A gun was recovered at the scene of the shooting, however the suspect is still at large. Students, faculty and staff are urged to remain indoors while Middletown Police continue to search for suspect(s). All campus events scheduled for today, including Spring Fling, are canceled.
Michael Roth
President
UPDATE 2:49pm The Hartford Courant reports: Student Shot Dead Near Wesleyan:
MIDDLETOWN – A Wesleyan student was shot and killed in a midday shooting at a popular bookstore near the Wesleyan University campus around 1 p.m. today, police sources said.
A witness said someone entered Broad Street Books, at the intersection of Broad and William Street, approached a woman behind the counter and fired multiple shots.
Police are still searching for the gunman, whom they describe as a white male with a thin build. They recovered a gun at the scene, said Middletown Police Lt. Margaret Liseo. Police have cordoned off the area, she said.
All schools in Middletown were locked down as a precaution, Liseo said. A statement from Wesleyan University recommended that students and staff should remain indoors and remain there until further notice.
Police and medical personnel have temporarily closed nearby streets. Officers appeared briefly on the roof of Broad Street Books. Armed officers in fatigues are in the area, and two officers followed a police dog as it ran up William Street, apparently in pursuit of the suspect. Police said the gunman was a white male with a thin build.
The university also canceled the annual “Spring Fling” outdoor party on campus. Hundreds of students had gathered on campus for the event that started at noon today but were ordered to go indoors after the shooting.
I just got a text message from the Wesleyan emergency system that reads:
There has been a shooting near campus. Students, faculty and staff should remain indoors. Check e-mail for additional info.
The first e-mail just came in:
This is Mike Whaley, VP for Student Affairs with a Wesleyan Community Alert.
Middletown Police has notified the University that a shooting occurred just after 1:00pm today in the area of Broad Street Books. The suspect has not yet been identified. Middletown Police have responded to the area. We advise students, faculty and staff to remain indoors until more information is available.
As more information is obtained the community will be notified via e-mail.
Listen to the voice message that went out as an emergency notification here.
I’m off campus, so in addition to these messages, all I’ve heard is that the hill was cleared off.
Feel free to share updates/info in the comments of this post.
MIDDLETOWN, Conn. — Police said a woman was shot in a Middletown bookstore on Wednesday afternoon.
The shooting took place at about 1 p.m. in Broad Street Books, Wesleyan University’s bookstore.
The victim said she didn’t know the shooter.
48 Comments
I was walking to Olin about 15 minutes ago when P-Safe got on the microphone and said something to the effect of “We’ve just been informed there has been a shooting on Broad Street. We are asking you all to leave the vicinity of the hill and return to your residence halls.”
Not sure what people who live in Hi- and Lo-Rise are supposed to do, but that’s all I know so far.
Yeah, spring fling interruptus.
Hi and LoRise are currently under house arrest until P-Safe lets us leave here. WTF!
Someone was just arrested at Hi Rise. Does this mean we can go back to the hill soon?
yeah he’s been carted off. anyone notice the fellow with the m4 (m16?).
I heard from a professor that there may have been up to three people with guns at broad st.
it was a wesleyan student who was shot. she’s been taken to the hospital.
will spring fling start again once this is cleared up?
I passed right by the fellow with the m4. scary shit.
does anyone know who was shot
johanna
which johanna??
http://www.courant.com/community/news/mr/hcu-middletown-shooting-0506,0,6172233.story
killed
Probably premature reporting.
http://www.courant.com/community/news/mr/hcu-middletown-shooting-0506,0,6172233.story
The hill is completely empty. There are taking everything down. Just stay indoors, nothing is going to happen outside.
Wesleyan.edu frontpage updated
http://wesinthenews.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2009/05/06/campus-security-update/
“The parents of the student have already been notified, but we cannot release the student’s name until all of the immediate family have been contacted.”
Silence could be better but I can not… “How many deaths will take you until you know that too many people have died?” GUNS UNDER CONTROL, the 2nd amendment it’s a fraud. Condolences to family and friends.
Can anyone definitively say the name of the victim?
cnn is reporting it was her bf
Middletown Press says it was an ex-boyfriend.
From the Middletown Press:
“The shooting occurred at the popular Wesleyan University Bookstore and Café at 45 Broad Street, where, unidentified sources say, a 20-year-old female student’s ex-boyfriend walked into the bookstore and shot her five times.
The sources say they know who the gunman is and are concentrating efforts on locating hime. State Police and a SWAT team were brought in, along with a K-9, to canvass the area.”
apparently there was another shooting on vine
shooting on vine is an unfounded rumor, no police presence on vine, suspect not on campus
someone heard it on a cop scanner.
and supposedly the suspect is not on campus
how the hell can you be so sure
WSHU Public Radio here (WESU is affiliated with us)–Please, if any one could call us, so we could tell our listeners what’s going on up there, we’d greatly appreciate it!
800.365.2005
Thank you & be safe!
Mark
i graduated Wes in 1984. I can’t recall any shooting on campus. It’s the end of innocence. Reunion will be much more somber.
Name was confirmed…Johanna Justin-Jinich…so sad, may she rest in peace.
confirmed at johanna justin-jinich
Link on confirmation of Johanna
http://wesinthenews.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2009/05/06/campus-security-update/
If police know who the suspect is and have yet to find him, then why in the hell won’t they offer up his name and photo?
Good question Josie…you’d think the general public could help find him. Hopefully they will catch him soon.
Broad Street & R&B Cafe will remain closed until further notice.
Thankyou
BennyF – there was a shooting inside the barbershop across the street from the Bookstore just last September. And there was another exchange of gunfire between residents of M’town on either Broad or Pearl Streets about ten years ago. If Wesleyan students have had any “innocence” left in terms of life in a blue collar, New England mill town, it has been largely in the form of a big fat fig leaf.
John Wes – I never said “no shooting in Middletown.”
yes, its a different feeling when its a wesleyan student
WFSB (Channel 2 News) just showed a surveillance picture of the suspect and it shows him with a gun. He appears to be white, has a dark beard, and is slightly balding with a comb over to the side. He looks to be around 30-40 years old (hard to tell because of the angle of the photo).
Updated news link:
http://www.wfsb.com/news/19385305/detail.html#
Updated news link minus the pic of the suspect (the news report on TV said police do not know his name, so they are circulating the photo from surveillance tapes in the hopes that people can help identify him):
http://www.wfsb.com/news/19385305/detail.html#
If he’s bald (the shooter), then it’s not a Wesleyan student as one of the news videos suggested it might be?
He looks a lot older than the average Wes student, so I doubt he is. That said, I’ve seen many guys on campus balding!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwVzx4gg-OU&feature=channel
shows image
he looks like a hipster. i’ve seen plenty of hipsters on campus and here in brooklyn (where you’ll all end up in a couple of years) who are our age, roughly, and sport that hairstyle.
hmmm yes hipsters are to blame. Chloe, run a scan on all hipsters in Middletown, cross reference it with weapons licenses
Is it definitive that the assailant is not a Wesleyan student?
Another anonymous Wesleying poster has said he was identified as 29 year old Steven Morgen on Fox News.
(In case not everyone is compulsive enough to read the comments on every single post like I am).
Anybody who’d call Middletown a “blue collar, New England mill town” hasn’t been here in 60 years… There have been several incidents of shootings: in Eclectic, in Malcolm X, and the Kofi Taha also shot at North College from Van Vleck. But even with suicides, accidental deaths, etc., I don’t think there has ever been a murder, and not so close to campus. And guns are not the problem, a killer can use a knife.
Anonymous @46, what part of that quotation do you disagree with “blue collar”, “mill town” or “New England”?
JohnWes – I’ll bite. Wesleyan is less blue collar than many towns its size, because many residents commute to Hartford, and also due to Wesleyan’s presence. Haven’t been there in a while – what makes it a mill town these days?
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