Gunman Was Acting Oddly Before Shooting at Central Michigan University, Police Say

A day after two people were shot and killed in a dorm room at Central Michigan University on Friday, police charged the victims’ son, a sophomore at the school, with murder.

The son, James E. Davis Jr., 19, had been acting strangely the day before the shooting, Chief Bill Yeagley of the Central Michigan University Police Department said at a news conference Saturday.

He said the gun recovered at the scene was registered to Davis’ slain father, James E. Davis Sr., a police officer.

On Saturday afternoon, the university police said in a statement that Davis was in police custody at a hospital. He was charged with two counts of murder and one count of possession of a weapon to commit murder.

Davis “had no interaction that we’re aware of in any negative fashion with anybody prior to this incident,” Yeagley said.

On Thursday, the student approached campus officers, apparently concerned that he was in danger.

“He said someone was out to hurt him, someone was going to harm him,” Yeagley said, adding that Davis referred to someone who had a gun, but made statements that were “very vague” and did not seem to make sense.

After looking into the issue and questioning another student, officers determined there was no threat to Davis and asked how they could help, Yeagley said.

Spring break was just around the corner. “He said, ‘I’m fine. I’m going home in the morning, so I’ll be good,'” Yeagley said.

But a few hours later, officers encountered Davis with a number of suitcases and bags in a dorm hallway and again he was speaking nonsensically, the chief said. The police statement said Davis made “statements that he was under the influence of drugs.” An officer spoke on the phone with Davis’ mother, Diva J. Davis, who said she and her husband would come to the university.

Officers helped Davis Jr. check into a hospital Thursday night. His parents picked him up there Friday and returned to the campus.

Yeagley said Davis appeared to have been making trips back and forth to his parents’ car to load his belongings Friday morning when, according to an eyewitness and some video footage, Davis brought a gun from the parking lot to his fourth-floor dorm room, where the shooting occurred.

The shooting set off a search for Davis that included more than 100 police officers, from several Michigan agencies and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Yeagley said Davis was found disoriented and with possible hypothermia shortly before 1 a.m. Saturday, near railroad tracks in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, about 155 miles northwest of Detroit.

News of the deaths hit hard in the Chicago suburb of Bellwood, Illinois, where the elder Davis had worked for almost 20 years as a part-time police officer.

“He was loved by all here,” said Mayor Andre F. Harvey, who recalled playing with Davis decades ago in Bellwood, when they were both children.

Chief Jiminez Allen of the Bellwood police said his department was taking the loss “very hard, including myself.”

“Our officers really took it to heart,” Harvey said. “There was some crying. There was a lot of hugging.”

American Airlines on Saturday confirmed that Diva Davis worked for the company as a flight attendant.

“This is an extraordinarily difficult time for those who knew and loved Diva, and our hearts go out to her family and friends,” Martha Thomas, a spokeswoman for the airline, said in a phone interview Saturday.

Coming about two weeks after a gunman killed 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Florida, the shooting Friday rattled nerves at Central Michigan. Details were released slowly, and students were told to take shelter inside dorms and classrooms for hours.

With James Davis in custody, “the danger that our community has experienced over the last 24 hours or so is now over,” Yeagley said Saturday.