Grad Student, Professer Fatally Shot at University

Aug. 28 -- A graduate school student and a longtime professor were shot to death today in an apparent murder-suicide on the first day of classes at the University of Arkansas.

Police found Professor John Locke, 67, and James Easton Kelly, 36, dead in Locke’s English department office on the second floor in Kimpell Hall, a building near the heart of the campus. Kelly was a graduate student in the comparative literature program, which Locke taught.

The gun recovered at the scene belonged to Kelly, police said. According to Capt. Brad Bruns, police had not uncovered a motive for the shootings or figured out who pulled the trigger. Kelly had been taking courses in a doctoral program for 10 years and had a pattern of enrolling in comparative literature courses and then dropping them, Bruns said. On Aug. 21, a committee of six professors voted to dismiss Kellyfrom the degree program but to allow him to continue to takeclasses as a non-degree student. Locke was on the committee butabstained from the vote, Bruns said.

Shots were fired in the professor’s office at about 2 p.m. ET, a university spokesman said. One earwitness said she heard words exchanged between gunshots.

“I heard one gunshot followed by a young man’s voice saying,‘No, I didn’t do anything,’” said Bethany Edstrom, a graduatestudent who was in a nearby office at the time of the shooting. “Then I heard a second shot.”

According to Capt. Bruns, officers who responded to several 911 calls spoke very briefly to a man behind the locked English office door. Less than five minutes later, Bruns said, a final shot rang out. Officers then found Locke and Kelly dead inside.

Grieving Campus

“All of us at the University of Arkansas are deeply upset by this terrible tragedy,” University of Arkansas Chancellor John A. White said in a statement. “We are working with the UAPD [University of Arkanas Police Department] and other relevant investigative agencies to determine as much as we can.”