Central Michigan University Gunman Was Acting Oddly Before Shooting, Police Say
Channel: Tey Yomiko
Date: 2018-03-04

Central Michigan University Gunman Was Acting Oddly Before Shooting, Police Say

A day after two people were shot and killed in a dorm room at Central Michigan University on Friday, the police charged the victims’ son, a sophomore at the school, with murder.

The son, James E. Davis Jr., 19, had been acting strangely the day before the shooting, Chief Bill Yeagley of the Central Michigan University Police Department said at a news conference on Saturday.

He said the gun recovered at the scene was registered to Mr. Davis’s slain father, James E. Davis Sr., a police officer.

On Saturday afternoon, the university police said in a statement that Mr. Davis was in police custody at a hospital. He was charged with two counts of murder and one count of possession of a weapon to commit murder.

Mr. Davis “had no interaction that we’re aware of in any negative fashion with anybody prior to this incident,” Chief Yeagley said.

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On Thursday, the student approached campus officers, apparently concerned that he was in danger.

“He said someone was out to hurt him, someone was going to harm him,” Chief Yeagley said, adding that Mr. Davis referred to someone who had a gun, but made statements that were “very vague” and did not seem to make sense.

After looking into the issue and questioning another student, officers determined there was no threat to Mr. Davis and asked how they could help, Chief Yeagley said.

Spring break was just around the corner. “He said, ‘I’m fine. I’m going home in the morning, so I’ll be good,’” Chief Yeagley said.

But a few hours later, officers encountered Mr. Davis with a number of suitcases and bags in a dorm hallway and again he was speaking nonsensically, the chief said. The police statement said Mr. Davis made “statements that he was under the influence of drugs.” An officer spoke on the phone with Mr. Davis’s mother, Diva J. Davis, who said she and her husband would come to the university.

Officers helped Mr. Davis check into a hospital on Thursday night. His parents picked him up there on Friday and returned to the campus.

Chief Yeagley said Mr. Davis appeared to have been making trips back and forth to his parents’ car to load his belongings on Friday morning when, according to an eyewitness and some video footage, Mr. Davis brought a gun from the parking lot to his fourth-floor dorm room, where the shooting occurred.

The shooting set off a search for Mr. Davis that included more than 100 police officers, from several Michigan agencies and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Chief Yeagley said Mr. Davis was found disoriented and with possible hypothermia shortly before 1 a.m. on Saturday, near railroad tracks in Mount Pleasant, Mich., about 155 miles northwest of Detroit.

News of the deaths hit hard in the Chicago suburb of Bellwood, Ill., where Officer Davis had worked for almost 20 years as a part-time police officer.

“He was loved by all here,” said Mayor Andre F. Harvey, who recalled playing with Officer Davis decades ago in Bellwood, when they were both children.

Chief Jiminez Allen of the Bellwood police said his department was taking the loss “very hard, including myself.”

and police said

The shooting at Central Michigan University today strikes close to home.  A sad day in Bellwood and across the 7th District.  My sincerest condolences go out to the family of Bellwood Police Officer James Davis Sr. and his wife who were shot and killed this morning. May they RIP

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