A Central Michigan University student was apprehended on Saturday for the alleged shooting of his parents in a campus dorm. The incident took place Friday morning, after which Michigan police began a daylong manhunt that ended late that night.
A bystander saw the suspect, 19-year-old James Eric Davis Jr., on the north end of the college campus after midnight, where he was then arrested. The college is located in Mount Pleasant, about 125 miles northwest of Detroit.
James Davis Sr. and Diva Davis, both 47, were discovered in the residence hall, according to police. “It was an isolated incident, but we had two people that were killed in a residence facility. That’s traumatic,” Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said, per Newsweek.
Following the shooting, authorities placed the college—which has a student body of over 20,000—on lockdown. Police spent Friday thoroughly searching the campus and neighboring areas for Davis Jr.
On Thursday night, the suspect was in the hospital after a purported overdose or “bad reaction to drugs,” Lt. Larry Klaus of the CMU campus police said.
According to Illinois state lawmaker Emanuel Chris Welch, James Davis Sr. was a police officer in Bellwood, Illinois. The gun that Davis Jr. allegedly used was his father’s.
The incident at CMU occurred just two weeks after 19-year-old gunman and former student Nikolas Cruz left 17 people dead in a massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida. That mass shooting is one of the deadliest in history.
