Memphis Student Killed in Campus Shooting

Oct. 1, 2007 — -- The University of Memphis temporarily locked down its campus early this morning after the fatal shooting of a 21-year-old football player.

The victim was identified by university officials and authorities as Taylor Bradford, a junior defensive lineman from Nashville, Tenn., who transferred to Memphis in 2006.

The shooting, which police said appeared to be a targeted attack, occurred near a campus housing complex around 9:45 p.m. Sunday. Bradford reportedly managed to get into his car and drive away from the crime scene, but crashed nearby.

He was taken to Regional Medical Center at 10:15 p.m., where he was pronounced dead, hospital spokeswoman Sandy Snell said.

Police have not yet named suspects in the shooting, but say they believe multiple people were involved and said the assailants likely fled the campus after the slaying.

University officials closed residence halls on campus for about a half-hour after the shooting and before police determined that Bradford had likely been targeted, university spokesman Curt Gunther said. Classes on the main university campus were canceled as a precaution, according to Gunther.

Students were first notified about the incident at 3:44 a.m. through a mass text message system, university President Shirley Raines said at an afternoon press conference. A second message was sent a few hours later.

The Memphis Tigers football team will play its scheduled home game Tuesday night against Marshall University, Raines said. A moment of silence will precede kickoff.

"Our entire football team is deeply saddened by the loss of Taylor," head coach Tommy West said in a statement. "He was well respected and a popular member of our team."

The University of Memphis shooting is one of a string of violent incidents that have shaken campuses this fall that were already on guard after the massacre on the Virginia Tech campus last spring. In that April shooting, student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 students and faculty members before ultimately killing himself.

An independent panel report released last month concluded that the university could have responded more swiftly after Cho killed his first two victims inside a campus dormitory. In the two hours before the university sent out its first e-mail warning to the community, Cho had time to mail his video confession to NBC and return to campus to open fire inside an academic building.

The panel found that information about the earlier shooting may have kept students out of classrooms that morning. "Nearly everyone at Virginia Tech is an adult and capable of making decisions about potentially dangerous situations to safeguard themselves," the report said. "So the earlier and clearer the warning, the more chance an individual had of surviving."

Cho's mass shooting prompted many universities to resume classes with multilayered security plans and upgraded security technology that enables them to communicate more quickly with students and faculty during a crisis.

Already, a handful of schools have had to respond to incidents of violence.

Saturday, University of Mississippi junior Rodney Lydale Lockhart, a 20-year-old champion sprinter, was found dead in his apartment near the campus from a single gunshot wound to his head. Police have not identified any suspects in the shooting.

Less than two weeks ago, two students were shot at Delaware State University. Loyer D. Braden, 18, faces various charges, including attempted first-degree murder, in connection with the shooting of two freshmen on campus. Both students survived the shooting, but the campus was forced to lock down temporarily.

The University of Colorado opened the year with a throat-slashing incident on the first morning of classes in which a former employee at the university with a history of mental illness allegedly attacked a freshman near the student union. The employee was sent to a mental institution.

At St. John's University last week, a student allegedly arrived on campus wearing a cartoon mask and carrying a loaded rifle. Omesh Hiraman, 22, was arraigned on weapons charges and was admitted to a Manhattan hospital after the incident. Officials locked down the campus after an erroneous report of a second gunman. Students were kept inside classrooms and campus buildings for three hours during an exhaustive search.

In each of the Delaware State, University of Colorado and St. John's incidents, university officials emphasized the importance of providing as much information as quickly as possible to the school community.

At University of Colorado and St. John's, mass text messaging systems recently instituted like the one used at Memphis alerted the community of violence on campus. At Delaware State, a message was posted on the school's Web site within hours of the early morning shooting.

Dominic Scianna, spokesman for St. John's University, said that the first report of a suspicious person on campus was received at 2:20 p.m. By 2:30 p.m. the gunman was apprehended, and by 2:38 p.m. the school had sent out its first message to students about the incident.

Scianna said the school instituted the text messaging system for the fall semester as part of various security upgrades made after the Virginia Tech shootings. Since last month's incident, the number of students, faculty and staff enrolled in the text messaging system has tripled -- evidence of increasing vigilance on campus.

"Certainly everyone was on high alert after Virginia Tech," Scianna said. "We had a plan in place, but we're always looking to refine it."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.