Only a few miles from where four Idaho college students were stabbed to death last month, gunfire rang out early Thursday in a shooting that led to a “shelter in place” order at a different college.
The incident took place in Pullman, Washington, just across the state line from Idaho and nine miles from Moscow, where the unsolved quadruple murder has the region on edge.
Although it did not occur on the Pullman campus of Washington State University, students were told to remain in their housing as a seven-hour standoff unfolded, according to Fox News.
The incident began Wednesday a little after 8:30 p.m., according to a statement from Pullman Police Chief Jake Opgenorth posted on the department’s Facebook page.
“Officers learned a male in his thirties, was threatening to kill his roommates. The roommates were evacuated from the apartment. Pullman Officers attempted to speak with the male, but he barricaded himself inside the apartment,” the post said.
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According to KIRO-TV, the shooter had two roommates.
“Pullman PD crisis negotiators and the Whitman County Regional SWAT Team responded. The suspect began firing from his apartment. The area was evacuated,” the post continued.
After “unsuccessful negotiations, escalating behavior and continued danger to the public and officers,” a member of the SWAT team shot the man, who was found dead when police entered the apartment.
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Rory Schuller, a senior at WSU, said he heard the first shot from the gunman at 2:15 a.m. and counted 26 shots in total. He added that the building was evacuated at about 4 a.m.
According to KHQ-TV, evacuations took place after a fire was set in the building where the shooter was holed up.
Police, who did not release the name of the gunman, said the incident was not related to the murders that took place in Moscow.
“With the Moscow murders so close to us, I think everyone is just frazzled and on high alert,” WSU professor Rebecca Cooney told KHQ reporter Bradley Warren.
PULLMAN: I just spoke to @RLCooney who tells me given everything that’s happened is Moscow this really hits hard. pic.twitter.com/X2eTmfLBNd
— Bradley Warren (@bradmwarren) December 15, 2022
“I would say that fear and uncertainty is a bit rampant,” she said. “It’s really all just a bit jarring.”
