Delta state University professor killed

A Delta State University professor is a person of interest in the murder of a fellow educator on the Cleveland, Miss., campus, police and school officials said.

Cops are searching for Dr. Shannon Lamb, a
45-year-old geography and social education professor, in relation to the shooting death of Ethan Schmidt.

The Northern Mississippi school is on lockdown as police hunt for the suspect, who is still on the loose hours after the 10:18 a.m. slaying, school officials said.


Bolivar County Deputy Coroner Murray Roark said Schmidt, a history professor was killed inside an office in Jobe Hall. It was not immediately clear if anyone else was wounded.

Warren Strain, a spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, said the suspect is no longer believed to be on the Cleveland campus. He would not say how investigators reached that conclusion or say where the suspect is believed to be.

The campus shooting may be tied to a murder in Gautier, 300 miles southeast of the Delta State campus, Biloxi’s Sun Herald reported.

Police say Lamb shot and killed a woman inside a home there. The 45-year old suspect called local police to report murder at 10:20 a.m. Monday — about 25 minutes before the Delta State University campus went into lockdown.


DELTA STATE UNIVERSITY
Professor Ethan A. Schmidt was killed Monday when a shooter opened fire on the Delta State University campus.

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Cleveland Police Department said at least one person was injured on the Delta State University campus after an active shooter stormed the school.

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The Mississippi school went into lockdown.

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The university urged students to stay inside and away from windows.

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Police are still hunting for the suspect.
Investigators said Lamb was romantically involved with the unidentified victim, WLOX reported.

Lamb left the Gautier home in a green SUV, police said. A similar model car was found on Delta State’s campus after the shooting, the newspaper reported. The suspect now may be driving a black Dodge Avenger with a Stone County license plate number STF015, officials said.

Students and colleagues mourned the late professor Schmidt Monday.

“Dr. Ethan Schmidt was a terrific family man, a good friend, a true son of Peabody, Kansas, and his beloved Emporia State University," said Don Allan Mitchell, an English professor at the school.

Schmidt directed the first-year seminar program and specialized in Native American and colonial history. He recently published his second book, “The Divided Dominion: Social Conflict and Indian Hatred in Early Virginia,” the university announced in March.

Before arriving at Delta State, Schmidt spent six years at Texas Tech as an assistant professor of American history.

DELTA STATE UNIVERSITY
Shannon Lamb
ETHAN A. SCHMIDT/VIA TWITTER
Ethan Schmidt
"I am deeply saddened - as is the entire Department of History - by the awful news of Ethan's passing," Sean Cunningham, the department chairman, said in a statement. "He was an outstanding teacher, scholar and friend. Even more importantly, he was an incredible husband and father. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Ethan's family. We are simply crushed."

The 3,500-student university is in Cleveland, in Mississippi's Delta region near the Arkansas-Mississippi state line. All classes Monday and a celebration scheduled for Tuesday to commemorate the school's 90th anniversay have been cancelled, school officials said.