AUSTIN, Texas — A student wearing a dark suit and a ski mask opened fire Tuesday with an assault rifle on the University of Texas campus before fleeing into a library and fatally shooting himself. No one else was hurt.
The shooting began near a fountain in front of the University of Texas Tower - the site of one of the nation’s deadliest shooting rampages more than four decades ago, when a gunman ascended the clock tower and fired down on dozens of people.
Within hours of Tuesday’s gunfire, the school issued an all-clear notice, but the university remained closed, and the area around the library was still considered a crime scene.
“Our campus is safe,” school President Bill Powers said.
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo expected the school to be “completely open and back to normal” by this morning.
Authorities identified the gunman as 19-year-old Colton Tooley, a sophomore math major. Police declined to speculate on his motive.
Tooley’s parents did not immediately respond to a message left by The Associated Press. A man who said he was a relative of the family and would identify himself only as Marcus came out of their home late Tuesday and said Tooley’s parents were distraught over losing their child.
“I want you to understand how he lived. He was a very smart guy, very intelligent, excellent student. He wouldn’t or couldn’t hurt a fly,” he said, reading from a prepared statement. “This is a great shock to me and my family. There was nothing prior to this day, nothing that would lead any of us to believe this could take place.”
Tooley’s high school principal in Austin described him as an excellent student who excelled in every subject.
“All of us in the Crockett High School community are shocked and saddened by today’s tragedy at the University of Texas,” said Principal Craig Shapiro. Shapiro’s prepared statement said Tooley, a 2009 graduate, was remembered by teachers as being “brilliant,” “meticulous” and “respectful.”
Police investigators went in and out of his family’s home in a middle-class Austin neighborhood Tuesday afternoon carrying bags and boxes. There was no immediate word on what was in the containers. A neighbor said police arrived at the home about three hours after the campus shooting.
Interactive
After the gunfire, authorities searched for a possible second gunman, but they eventually concluded the gunman acted alone. Confusion about the number of suspects arose because shots were fired in multiple locations, and officers received varying descriptions from witnesses, campus police Chief Robert Dahlstrom said.
Before reaching the library, the gunman apparently walked for several blocks wearing a mask and dark clothing and carrying an automatic weapon, witnesses said.
Construction worker Ruben Cordoba said he was installing a fence on the roof of a three-story building near the library when he looked down and made eye contact with the suspect.
“I saw in his eyes he didn’t care,” Cordoba said.
The gunman continued down the street, firing three shots toward a campus church, then changed direction and fired three more times into the air, Cordoba said.
Police said it was unclear whether the gunman was targeting anyone with the AK-47.
Acevedo said officers were able to track the gunman’s movements with the help of students who “kept pointing in the right direction.”
The police chief said he believes the gunman ran into the library as officers closed in on him, then shot himself in the head on the sixth floor.
Police did not fire any shots, Acevedo said.
Powers credited the school’s crisis-management plan and social networking for quickly warning students, faculty and staff. The university’s text messaging system reaches more than 43,000 people, he said.
On Aug. 1, 1966, Charles Whitman went to the 28th-floor observation deck at the clock tower in the middle of campus and began shooting at people below. He killed 16 people and wounded nearly three dozen before police killed him about 90 minutes after the siege began.
Information for this article was contributed by April Castro, Jim Vertuno, Ramit Plushnick-Masti and Diana Heidgerd of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 09/29/2010