Police say the college instructor who murdered his girlfriend and a Delta State University professor killed himself as they closed in on him.
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A USA university lecturer told police he had killed his girlfriend at the home they shared – but there was no hint he had also shot a colleague dead.
Mike Shaffer, a bartender and sometimes entertainment coordinator at The Julep Room, a dimly lit bar near Gautier, said he last saw Lamb and Prentiss the night of September 5, after Lamb had finished playing his guitar and harmonica for a sparse crowd.
Karen Manners Smith, a history professor at Emporia State University in Kansas, where Schmidt studied, called him “a super competent human being”.
She said Tyler kept a cool demeanor the entire time, which helped calm some of her nerves. Police have indicated that Lamb is the only suspect in the death of Prentiss, 41. He admits killing Prentiss and refers police to a Santa Cruz address. He instructed authorities to “take care of her [Prentiss]”. Lamb reportedly jumped out of his vehicle and “ran into a wooded area”, from whence officers heard a gunshot. He was teaching two online classes this semester, but an in-person class had been cancelled, LaForge said.
It is believed there was a possible love triangle between Schmidt, Lamb and Amy Prentiss. “He always sees the big picture and I think had he been alarmed, it might have alarmed me more”, she said. Matt Hoggatt said investigators have found “no connection” as yet between Prentiss and Schmidt.
Lamb was also identified as the suspect in the murder of Ethan Schmidt, a Delta State professor who was found dead in his office Monday morning.
The hunt for Lamb brought together campus police and city police as well as the Mississippi Highway Patrol, Bolivar County Sheriff’s Department and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Delta State had planned to celebrate its 90th anniversary Tuesday – some of the festivities were even supposed to be in Jobe Hall where the shooting happened – but LaForge says that event will be rescheduled. “We never accept the conventional wisdom or current paradigm as an acceptable answer”. “She and her mother were absolutely best friends”.
He obtained his doctorates degree in education from Delta State past year and had worked there since 2009, according to his resume posted on the school’s website.
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The professor gave the students chairs to throw if the shooter came in, said King’s friend, Christopher Walker Todd. “This is a day of healing”.
