Appalachian School of Law shooting -- from Wikipedia

The Appalachian School of Law shooting occurred on January 16, 2002, at the Appalachian School of Law, an American Bar Association accredited private law school in Grundy, Virginia, United States. Three people were killed and three others were wounded when a disgruntled former student opened fire in the school with a handgun.

The shooting

On January 16, 2002, 43-year-old Peter Odighizuwa, a Nigerian student at the Appalachian School of Law, arrived on the campus. ^[1] While numerous reports stated that Odighizuwa had flunked out of school or had been suspended, Jeremy Davis, former dean and professor of law at the school, later said that Odighizuwa had withdrawn voluntarily due to poor academic performance.^[2]

Odighizuwa first discussed his academic problems with professor Dale Rubin, where he reportedly told Rubin to pray for him.^[3] Odighizuwa then walked to the offices of Dean Anthony Sutin and Professor Thomas Blackwell, where he opened fire on them with a .380 ACP semi-automatic handgun. According to a county coroner, powder burns indicated that both victims were shot at point blank range.^[4] Also killed along with the two faculty members was a student, Angela Denise Dales, age 33. Three other people were wounded.

Armed students subdued the shooter

When Odighizuwa exited the building where the shooting took place, he was approached by two students with personal firearms.^[5]

At the first sound of gunfire, fellow students Tracy Bridges and Mikael Gross, unbeknownst to each other, ran to their vehicles to fetch their personally-owned firearms.^[6] Gross, a police officer with the Grifton Police Department in his home state of North Carolina, retrieved a bulletproof vest and a 9 mm pistol.^[7] Bridges pulled his .357 Magnum pistol from beneath the driver's seat of his Chevy Tahoe. As Bridges later told the Richmond Times Dispatch, he was prepared to shoot to kill.^[8]

Bridges and Gross approached Odighizuwa from different angles, with Bridges yelling at Odighizuwa to drop his gun.^[9] Odighizuwa then dropped his firearm and was subdued by several other unarmed students.^[10] Once Odighizuwa was securely held down, Gross went back to his vehicle and retrieved handcuffs to detain Odighizuwa until police could arrive.

Police reports later noted that two empty eight round magazines designed for Odighizuwa’s handgun were recovered. While some sources report that when Odighizuwa dropped his handgun, it still had a magazine holding three rounds of ammunition within it^[11], other sources state that he dropped the gun only when the magazine was empty.^[12]

Trial

At trial, Odighizuwa was found mentally competent and pleaded guilty to the murders to avoid the death penalty. Odighizuwa was sentenced to multiple life terms in prison.

Analysis

This case was cited by John Lott^[13] and others^[14] as an example of the media's bias against guns, claiming that the use of a firearm in a defensive role was not reported in most news stories of the event.^[15] However, gun control advocates and commentators have disagreed with this view of the shooting and say that the media, in general, did mention the defensive use of firearms.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ "Suspect in law school slayings arraigned" USA Today, January 17, 2002.
2. ^ "'against all sense and reason" or Change and the Art of Getting Lucky" by W. Jeremy Davis, Dean and Professor of Law, Appalachian School of Law, Univ of Toledo Law Review Volume 34, Number 1, fall 2002, accessed April 17, 2007. Item on Odighizuwa is in footnote xxviii.
3. ^ "Suspect in law school slayings arraigned" USA Today, January 17, 2002.
4. ^ "Suspect in law school slayings arraigned" USA Today, January 17, 2002.
5. ^ The Bias Against Guns: Why Almost Everything You've Heard About Gun Control Is Wrong by John R. Lott, Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2003. This book's section on this shooting incidence is summarized at "Appalachian Law School Shootings, Media Crushes The Truth" by Ted Lang, the Price of Liberty Website, accessed April 17, 2007.
6. ^ "Helping to Stop a Killer: Students Went After Law School Gunman" by Rex Bowman, Richmond Times Dispatch, 5/5/2002. Also "Ex-Charlottean: I Helped Nab Suspect" by Diane Suchetka, The Charlotte Observer, 2002-01-18, Page 2A.
7. ^ "Shooting Hits Many Lives, Roanoke Times & World News (Roanoke, VA), January 20, 2002, page A-1. Story can be accessed at The Feed Directory, accessed April 17, 2007.
8. ^ "Helping to Stop a Killer: Students Went After Law School Gunman" by Rex Bowman, Richmond Times Dispatch, 5/5/2002.
9. ^ "Helping to Stop a Killer: Students Went After Law School Gunman" by Rex Bowman, Richmond Times Dispatch, 5/5/2002.
10. ^ "Law school, guns, and a media bias" by James Eaves-Johnson, The Daily Iowan 01/24/2002.
11. ^ "Local man lives through recent shooting at college" by Carrie Sidener, The Elkin Tribune, accessed April 17, 2007.
12. ^ "A Tragedy Compounded", Jim Oliphant, Legal Times, June 20, 2002. Accessed April 18, 2007.
13. ^ The Bias Against Guns: Why Almost Everything You've Heard about Gun Control is Wrong by John R. Lott, Regnery Publishing, 2003, page 27.
14. ^ "When Guns Stop Crime, Media Attach Their Silencers" by Donny Ferguson, The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.), February 4, 2002, page B11.
15. ^ The Bias Against Guns: Why Almost Everything You've Heard about Gun Control is Wrong by John R. Lott, Regnery Publishing, 2003, page 27. "When Guns Stop Crime, Media Attach Their Silencers" by Donny Ferguson, The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.), February 4, 2002, page B11. Arrogance: Rescuing America From the Media Elite by Bernard Goldberg, Warner Books, 2003, pages 185-87.

External links

• CNN Report: Shooting At A Law School