A top Texas university has marked the start of a new academic year not with the eager bustle of students to and from classes but tragic reports of a dorm-room shooting.
Rice University issued a brief shelter-in-place notice Monday afternoon as campus police attended the Jones College residential hall room of junior Andrea Rodriguez Avila, whose family had requested a welfare check after she’d been out of contact and failed to attend classes.
Avila was discovered dead of a gunshot wound at the scene, alongside the body of a man who appeared to have died from a second, self-inflicted shot. He has not been named but is apparently unaffiliated with the university and may have been from Florida.
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Police are now investigating the incident as a suspected murder-suicide, after finding a note written by the man that detailed a “troubled relationship” between the pair, who are reported to have been dating.
The deaths took place on the first day of classes, and while the shelter-in-place order was soon lifted, lessons were canceled for the remainder of the evening. “It is with deep sadness and shock that I write to you on what should have been a day filled with promise and new beginnings,” university president Reginald DesRoches said in a statement obtained by the Houston Chronicle.
He described the shooting as “a heartbreaking, devastating incident,” adding it was “important to recognize that this loss will affect our close-knit community in the days and weeks ahead.” The university has contacted Avila’s parents, who are soon scheduled to fly out from their home in Maryland.
Reports indicate there were no signs of forced entry at Avila’s room. It’s possible that Avila had let the man into Jones College at some point earlier in the day, given the dorms are only accessible by swiping a university card.
