A Shooting At A Michigan University Has The Campus On Lockdown

Michigan State Police confirmed on Friday morning that there was a shooting at the Central Michigan University, killing two people. The suspect remains at large, and the campus is on lockdown. CMU officials have warned students to stay away from the Campbell Hall, where gunshots were reportedly fired.

Update: Police have arrested the shooting suspect, identified as a 19-year-old student of CMU. The two victims, according to the university, are his parents. CNN reported that CMU Police Lt. Larry Klaus said law enforcement is calling the shooting "a family-type domestic issue at this point."

Earlier: Police told Fox 2 Detroit that two people have died following the shooting, but did not immediately say if there were any others injured. The New York Daily News reported it was a "domestic" dispute. According the Associated Press, police said the two people who were fatally shot are not students.

Officials in Mount Pleasant, where the CMU campus is located, described the suspect as a 19-year-old black male wearing mustard jeans and a blue hoodie. He is "considered armed and dangerous"; police are urging people to call 911 if they spot the suspect.

According to local news outlet WNEM, students on campus received an automated message at around 9 a.m. about shots fired at Campbell Hall. CMU's College of Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences tweeted from its account, "Please avoid Campbell Hall until we hear more information. We received an emergency alert of shots fired in Campbell Hall." CM Life, the school paper, posted on Twitter that the school is "urging students to stay where they are and to not leave their dorm rooms/on campus buildings," adding that classes have been canceled.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder tweeted that he is in contact with Michigan State Police about the situation at CMU. "The priority right now is the safety of those still on campus and I thank all first responders involved for their swift action," he added.

There are about 20,000 students at the Mount Pleasant campus. CMU is located about 150 miles northwest of Detroit.

The shooting at CMU comes mere weeks after a deadly school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people — students and teachers included. That incident reinvigorated the national push for gun control, a movement that has been spurred on and led by the survivors of the shooting, many of them teenagers.

The Parkland shooting has also rekindled the question about the safety of students, given the frequency at which these shootings occur in schools. After Parkland, the gun control advocacy group, Everytown, stated that there have been 17 school shootings in 2018. In lieu of stricter gun control measures, some parents have even resorted to buying their children bulletproof backpacks.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting at CMU, much of the response on Twitter has been a mix of anger and sadness, with calls for lawmakers to do more on gun control.

After Parkland, polls found that public support for gun control has grown. A number of major retailers, including Walmart and Dick's, have changed their firearms sale policies. Yet, despite the sustained calls for tighter gun restrictions, Republicans, who control both Congress and the executive branch, have largely stuck to offering thoughts and prayers, and no action.

Most recently, however, President Trump appeared to back the idea of gun control measures during a meeting, calling on his party members to support legislation to expand background checks for those looking to buy guns, raise the age limit for gun sales, and ensure mentally ill people cannot buy guns. The meeting reportedly irked many Republicans with whom the NRA has a lobbying stronghold. But Trump has yet to take concrete action on the issue, and Democratic lawmakers who have advocated for gun control reportedly remain skeptical about the president's plans.

At the time of writing, Trump had not issued a statement on the CMU shooting.