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UALR student shot on campus recovering, police ID suspect Friday, Feb 29, 2008 By Jason Wiest Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - A University of Arkansas at Little Rock student was recovering at a local hospital after undergoing surgery for gunshot wounds he sustained Wednesday in an on-campus shooting, campus officials said Thursday. Campus police identified a suspect in the daylight shooting that left James Earl Matthews, a 33-year-old junior studying radio, television and theater with wounds to the lower abdomen and upper buttocks. "The surgery went well and ... the outlook is good," UALR Chancellor Joel Anderson said at a news conference he was told during a hospital visit with Matthews and his family. UALR Police Chief Brad King said Thursday his department had identified one of the two suspects, who has a criminal record with the Little Rock Police Department and is not a UALR student. Police declined to release any further information about the suspect or a motive, but said police hoped to have a warrant for the man's arrest by day's end. King said the department was still interviewing witnesses and hoped to interview Matthews. "I think I can safely say that this was not a random event, that our victim was the target all along," King said. Police had not reported any new developments in the search by mid-afternoon. Police reassured the campus community there was no more danger Thursday than there was days before Wednesday shooting, which occurred around 2:15 p.m. on a campus sidewalk near tennis courts, but said extra officers would be on patrol. Classes were canceled Wednesday night but were held as scheduled Thursday. Anderson said a campus-wide alert was sent to about 1,400 students, staff and faculty via telephone and to about 8,000 students, staff and faculty via e-mail within 14 minutes of a 911 call about the shooting. "In the coming days and weeks ahead, we will, with broad campus participation, evaluate our response to yesterday's event and our security measures, and continue to take steps to ensure the safety of the campus community," Anderson said Thursday. The three-month-old telephone alert system, which was to place automated telephone calls to about 2,700 phone numbers in a database that held faculty office numbers and residence numbers for students who live on campus, was still being implemented and was first tested last week, UALR Communications Director Judy Williams said. About 1,400 of the calls were actually successfully delivered because of a high call volume that burdened the system, officials said. The campus community consists of about 16,000 people, Williams said. "We're going to be reviewing how to support the system to ensure there isn't any downtime," she said. Additionally, the call came across caller ID's as "unknown caller," prompting some to ignore the call, UALR spokeswoman Joan Duffy said. "We're going to identify ourselves in future uses of this technology," Duffy said, noting that it could easily be changed to say "UALR Emergency Message." Others who received the call chose not to listen after answering it when they heard it was a recording, she said. Although all students, staff and faculty have e-mail addresses through the university, some opt out of the listserve, explaining why not all members of the campus community received an e-mail message. A test scheduled has been delayed because of the shooting, Williams said. UALR is still implementing software for the new alert system that will allow students, staff and faculty to enter their information into the system. "I think that we're trying to step that process up," Williams said. "There' s lot of interest now in getting addresses and phone numbers to us." |
