WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) - A routine day of classes was pierced by the sounds of gunfire, fire alarms and screams when a Purdue University student entered a basement classroom and shot and killed a fellow senior engineering student from Wisconsin, whom a former teacher described as having a “brilliant mind.”
Police haven’t determined why Cody Cousins, 23, shot Andrew Boldt, a 21-year-old teaching assistant from West Bend, Wis., inside the school’s Electrical Engineering Building about noon Tuesday.
Purdue Police Chief John Cox said witnesses believed the shooting was “an intentional act” but said there was no immediate indication Cousins and Boldt had past troubles.
No one else was injured, and Cousins is being held at the Tippecanoe County Jail on a preliminary charge of murder.
The shooting at the school about 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis prompted Purdue President Mitch Daniels to cut short a weeklong university trip to Colombia and cancel classes Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Violent crime, whenever and wherever it occurs, shocks our conscience and incites our rage. When it happens in our home, to a family member - and as a Boilermaker Andrew Boldt was family to us - those emotions are more powerful still,” Daniels said in a statement read Tuesday night at a campus vigil, which was attended by hundreds.
University officials praised the police response, but the shooting left many students jittery.
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MILWAUKEE (AP) - A teacher at a Milwaukee high school says she was devastated to learn that her former student has been shot and killed at Purdue University.
Andrew Boldt graduated from Marquette University High School in 2010. The 21-year-old was killed Tuesday, and a suspect is in custody.
Boldt’s high school calculus teacher remembers him as a brilliant mathematician who was a role model to his classmates.
Jean Morrell says Boldt was a high-level thinker who was so impassioned about his work that he often stayed after class to talk about math and robotics.
She says he was a “phenomenal young man” with a great mind and an equally great heart. She says she’s sad he won’t get an opportunity to make his contribution to the world.
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) - Hundreds of people have gathered on Purdue University’s campus for a vigil remembering a student who was killed there.
Andrew Boldt of West Bend, Wis., was fatally shot Tuesday in the Electrical Engineering Building on the school’s main campus in West Lafayette. Police have arrested another student, 23-year-old Cody Cousins, on a preliminary charge of murder.
Police say they believe Cousins targeted Boldt but are still trying to determine a motive for the shooting.
Purdue President Mitch Daniels was traveling Tuesday but offered his prayers for Boldt’s family in a statement read at the vigil.
Provost Tim Sands says he hoped the vigil would be the start of a healing process for the university.
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MILWAUKEE (AP) - The victim of a fatal shooting at Purdue University was an Eagle Scout whom a former teacher describes as a “very capable student and an even better person.”
Twenty-one-year-old Andrew Boldt of West Bend, Wis., was fatally shot Tuesday in the Electrical Engineering Building on Purdue’s main campus in West Lafayette. Police have arrested another student, 23-year-old Cody Cousins, on a preliminary charge of murder.
Purdue Police Chief John Cox says Boldt was a teaching assistant at the university.
Boldt’s LinkedIn profile says he spent two summers interning for John Deere in Silvis, Ill., and planned to graduate in May.
Retired Latin teacher James Greenwald of Milwaukee’s Marquette University High School says his former student was bright and always willing to help others with technology issues.
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