Police seek suspect after two killed at Louisiana university

[October 26, 2017]    (Reuters) - A student and another man were shot and killed on Wednesday at Grambling State University in Louisiana, and police were searching for the assailant who fled the scene, school and law enforcement officials said.

The student, Earl Andrews, 23, and Monquiarious Caldwell, 23, who was not enrolled at the university, were fatally shot during an altercation in a campus courtyard shortly after midnight on Wednesday, the officials said.

The shooting came after an argument in a dormitory room, said Major Stephen Williams of the Lincoln Parish Sheriff's Department, the agency investigating the incident.

Sheriff Mike Stone said in a statement that the incident was not random and the victims knew the shooter. He told a local newspaper that there had been "bad blood" between the victims and the suspect.

It was the second shooting on Grambling's campus in five weeks. On Sept. 21, a fight in a dorm room led to a student being shot in the left arm, said Kathy Spurlock, a Grambling spokeswoman.

University President Richard Gallot offered condolences to the families of the victims on Wednesday. Both of the shooting victims were from Farmerville, Louisiana.

"We are working with authorities to do all that we can to ensure your safety on campus, our first priority," Gallot said in a statement.

Classes were held as scheduled on Wednesday.

Grambling State University is a historically black college attended by about 4,800 students in Grambling in northern Louisiana.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee and Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe and Sandra Maler)

[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.