It is very upsetting to read of the alacrity of the campus police to run with the information supplied by Heather Haugh, the best friend and roommate of Emily Hilscher, one of Cho’s two victims, along with RA Ryan Clark, in the first shooting episode at the Johnston dorm. Heather supplied the information to the campus police that Emily’s boyfriend was a gun enthusiast. That was evidently all the campus police needed to decide that he was the major and really the only suspect, that the whole affair was a “domestic dispute,” and that locking down the campus or issuing a general warning was not necessary. Quite without any other supporting evidence, Karl Thornhill’s being the boyfriend and a gun enthusiast was enough. Later Heather told the LA Times that Emily and Karl got on very well. This was very bad police work, and perhaps bespeaks a prejudice against anyone who even likes guns. Furthermore, even if this scenario were true, the fact of the RA also being murdered might have indicated that this killer was reckless and dangerous to others as well.

And by the way, doesn’t a murder immediately mean having to call regular police? Why would the campus police take it upon themselves to pursue the case? Perhaps regular police would not have seized upon this faulty explanation to the exclusion of all others.