2 Shot Dead At Central Michigan University

The victims in what authorities called “a domestic situation” weren’t students.

Police arrested a 19-year-old man just after midnight Saturday, hours after his parents were found fatally shot in a Central Michigan University dorm building Friday morning.

The shooting occurred at 8:30 a.m. Friday at Campbell Hall dorm on the Mount Pleasant, Michigan, campus.

James Eric Davis Jr. was taken into custody after “well over 100 police officers” from multiple agencies were a part of a search for the suspect, who had been considered armed and dangerous, the Mount Pleasant Police Department said in a statement. He was arrested without incident, authorities said early Saturday.

Davis is listed as a sophomore at Central Michigan University, according to the Detroit Free Press.

The university identified the victims as Davis’ parents, James Eric Davis Sr. and Diva Jeneen Davis, both 47 years old. Davis Sr. was a police officer and a 24-year veteran of the Illinois National Guard, the Chicago Tribune reported. No others were reported hurt.

“Police believe the situation started from a domestic situation,” the school said in a statement.

Some parents were on campus Friday to pick up students for spring break. The university, which has close to 23,000 students, remained on lockdown for hours Friday as police escorted students and parents off campus. Police told Mount Pleasant residents to remain on guard and stay indoors while police searched for the gunman.

Davis was in custody by 12:50 a.m. Saturday. 

Davis had been taken to a hospital Thursday night after a possible drug overdose or “bad reaction to drugs,” Lt. Larry Klaus of the university police said during a news conference Friday. He was later released back to the campus, but police could not confirm what type of treatment Davis had received.

Police had called on Mount Pleasant residents to help locate Davis on Friday. They offered a description and had asked the community to call 911 and avoid approaching the suspect should they see him.

Students tweeted that they received several automated messages from campus police warning them about an active incident on the fourth floor of Campbell Hall, then a second alert that the gunman was still at large.

Security cameras in the dorm’s common areas and exits filmed Davis leaving the building, heading north on the campus and running along train tracks, police said Friday, according to the Detroit Free Press. In a statement, university officials said that a witness on a train had reported seeing Davis while passing through the north end of the campus shortly after midnight.

In a tweet on Friday, Illinois state Rep. Emmanuel Chris Welch (D) said the Central Michigan University shooting “strikes close to home” and offered his condolences to the Davis family.

The shooting rocked the Michigan campus little more than two weeks after a 19-year-old gunman opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people.