Scores of local and federal law enforcement agents are scouring a Mississippi college campus after a history professor was shot to death in his office Monday.
Ethan Schmidt was shot in the head while in his office at Delta State University in the city of Cleveland, according to according to Bolivar County Deputy Coroner Murray Roark.
The shooter remains at large, the coroner said.
And investigators in a town 300 miles away said the shooting could be connected to another homicide.
Police in Gautier, Mississippi, are investigating a homicide that happened in the area Monday morning that could be connected to the fatal shooting of the Delta State University professor, Detective Matt Hoggatt with Gautier Police told CNN.
Hoggatt said the suspect in the Gautier shooting, Shannon Lamb, was last seen driving a green SUV. That vehicle has also been linked to the Delta State University shooting, Hoggatt said.
Authorities investigating the Delta State University shooting have not named any suspects in the case.
The school had earlier tweeted on an official account that at least one person was killed in a shooting, and that the campus was on lockdown. The tweet advised that everyone stay indoors and away from windows. Classes have been canceled for the remainder of the day and evening.
The hunt for Schmidt’s killer has 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.
Schmidt’s Delta State biography says that he taught undergraduate courses in American history, and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Kansas in 2007. Schmidt had written several books and scholarly papers and had expertise in Native American history.
Before working at Delta State, he taught for six years at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, where he received the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2011.
