Parent of Kentucky State University student arrested in deadly campus shooting: Police
One student is dead and another critically injured in a shooting Tuesday at Kentucky State University in Frankfort, according to police.
A suspect in the shooting, who is not a student at the university, is in custody, police said in a press release, identifying him as Jacob Lee Bard, 48, of Evansville, Indiana. He is a parent of a Kentucky State University student, police said.
He has been booked into jail on charges of murder and first-degree assault.
Preliminary information indicates the shooting was caused by a personal dispute and was not a random active shooter situation, an official briefed on the situation told ABC News.
"This was not a mass shooting or a random incident based on what I've been told, and the suspected shooter is already in custody," Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in a video message. "That means that while this was scary, there is no ongoing threat and I believe our families are safe."
The Frankfort Police Department said it responded to an incident on the school's campus Tuesday afternoon "regarding an active aggressor."
The shooting occurred near Whitney M. Young Jr. Hall, a residence hall on the south side of the campus, according to the school.
According to the arrest citation for Bard, the suspect was involved in a "physical altercation" on campus before allegedly shooting two people with a handgun.
Two Kentucky State University students were shot in the incident, one fatally, authorities said.
The Franklin County Coroner's Office on Wednesday identified the deceased victim as 19-year-old De'Jon Darrell Fox Jr., of Indianapolis. Fox's family told ABC Indianapolis affiliate WRTV that he was a sophomore at the university and loved being a student there.
The other victim was transported to a hospital in stable but critical condition, Frankfort police said Tuesday. The student remains in intensive care, police said Wednesday.
Scott Tracy, the assistant chief of police with the Frankfort Police Department, said the shooting was an "isolated" incident. He said authorities are investigating a video circulating online that appeared to show a student being "jumped" by a group, though he noted it is too early in the investigation to label that as the cause of the incident.
The investigation is ongoing. The university said it is working closely with local and state law enforcement.
"At this time, there is no ongoing threat to the campus community," the school said in a statement to students on Tuesday.
All classes and activities at the campus, which is located approximately 25 miles northwest of Lexington, have been canceled for the rest of the week, school officials said.
"Today, indeed, was a senseless tragedy," Kentucky State University President Koffi Akakpo said at a press briefing on Tuesday. "We're mourning the loss of one of our students."
Beshear urged people to pray for those affected and "for a world where these things don't happen."
"I'll keep trying to build a Kentucky that we don't see arguments ended in violence," he said.
