Appalachian School of Law shooting

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Peter Odighizuwa, the shooter, being escorted into the Buchanan County General District Court Grundy Va., Thursday Jan. 17, 2002.
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 former student 43-year-old Peter Odighizuwa opened fire in the school with a handgun.

Unlike other more notorious American school shootings — such as at Columbine, Virginia Tech or the Amish school shooting in Nickel Mines, PA — casualties in this incident were limited by the intervention of armed bystanders on the ASL campus, whose timely actions brought the incident to a halt and prevented Odighizuwa from inflicting further harm.

Contents

[edit] The shooting

43-year-old former student Peter Odighizuwa arrived on the campus with a handgun.[1] Odighizuwa first discussed his academic problems with professor Dale Rubin, where he reportedly told Rubin to pray for him.[1] Odighizuwa returned to the school around 1:00 and proceeded to the offices of Dean Anthony Sutin and Professor Thomas Blackwell, where he opened fire with a .380 ACP semi-automatic handgun. According to a county coroner, powder burns indicated that both victims -- unarmed and therefore with no effective means of defending themselves -- were shot at point blank range.[1] Also killed along with the two faculty members was an unarmed student, Angela Denise Dales, age 33. Three other unarmed people were wounded.

[edit] Students subdued the shooter

When Peter Odighizuwa exited the building where the shooting took place, he was approached by two students with personal firearms[2] and one unarmed student. [3]

At the first sound of gunfire, Tracy Bridges and fellow student Mikael Gross, unbeknownst to each other, ran to their vehicles to fetch their personal firearms.[4] Gross, a police officer with the Grifton Police Department in his home state of North Carolina, retrieved a 9 mm pistol and body armor.[5] Bridges, a county sheriff's deputy from Asheville, N.C.,[6] pulled his .357 Magnum pistol from beneath the driver's seat of his vehicle. As Bridges later told the Richmond Times Dispatch, he was prepared to shoot to kill.[7] Bridges and Gross approached Odighizuwa from different angles, with Bridges yelling at Odighizuwa to drop his gun.[8] Odighizuwa then dropped his firearm and was subdued by several other unarmed students, including Ted Besen and Todd Ross.[9] Besen, a former marine and police officer in Wilmington, North Carolina, charged and tackled Odighizuwa, forcing him to the ground.

Once Odighizuwa was securely held down, Gross went back to his vehicle and retrieved handcuffs to detain Odighizuwa until police could arrive.

[edit] The perpetrator

The perpetrator, Peter Odighizuwa, then 43 years old, was from Nigeria. 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.[10] Odighizuwa even stated in a later interview that he "had a C average." [11]

[edit] Legal Repercussions

Initially in 2002, Odighizuwa was found to be incompetent to stand trial and was referred for psychiatric treatment. After three years of treatment and monitoring, in 2005, 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 plus 28 additional years.

[edit] Aftermath

[edit] Gun control implications

This case was cited by John Lott[12] and others[13] as an example of the media's bias against guns, rightfully pointing out that the use of a firearm in a defensive role was not reported in most news stories of the event.[14] Indeed, the majority of the public are unaware of this instance of personal firearms saving lives.

[edit] Memorials

After the shooting, students at the law school planted trees in memory of Sutin, Blackwell, and Dales on the school's front lawn. The school's student services office and scholarship program were named for Dales, along with County Highway 624 in Buchanan County, Virginia. Faculty fellowships at the school were named for Sutin and Blackwell. [15] The school's Phi Alpha Delta chapter is named for Sutin[16] while the Phi Delta Phi chapter is named for Blackwell [17].

[edit] References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Suspect in law school slayings arraigned" USA Today, January 17, 2002.
  2. ↑ 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.
  3. ↑ Man who confronted 2002 law school shooter says Gingrich wrong on arming students by Chris Kahn, the Associated Press, found at [1]
  4. ↑ "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.
  5. ↑ "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.
  6. ↑ "Ex-Charlottean: I Helped Nab Suspect" by Diane Suchetka, The Charlotte Observer, 2002-01-18, Page 2A.
  7. ↑ "Helping to Stop a Killer: Students Went After Law School Gunman" by Rex Bowman, Richmond Times Dispatch, 5/5/2002.
  8. ↑ "Helping to Stop a Killer: Students Went After Law School Gunman" by Rex Bowman, Richmond Times Dispatch, 5/5/2002; also "Area officer helps wrestle law school gunman to ground" The Asheville Citizen-Times, Story can be accessed at The Feed Directory, accessed April 20, 2007.
  9. ↑ "Law school, guns, and a media bias" by James Eaves-Johnson, The Daily Iowan 01/24/2002; Helping to Stop a Killer: Students Went After Law School Gunman" by Rex Bowman, Richmond Times Dispatch, 5/5/2002; "Ex-Charlottean: I Helped Nab Suspect" by Diane Suchetka, The Charlotte Observer, 2002-01-18, Page 2A.
  10. ↑ "'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.
  11. ↑ "Appalachian School of Law Killer Still Haunted by Paranoia, Delusions" by Chris Kahn, Associated Press.
  12. ↑ The Bias Against Guns: Why Almost Everything You've Heard about Gun Control is Wrong by John R. Lott, Regnery Publishing, 2003, page 27.
  13. ↑ "When Guns Stop Crime, Media Attach Their Silencers" by Donny Ferguson, The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.), February 4, 2002, page B11.
  14. ↑ 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.
  15. ↑ ASL January 16, 2002 Memorial
  16. ↑ Phi Alpha Delta Sutin Chapter
  17. ↑ Phi Delta Phi Blackwell Inn


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