The Appalachian School of Law shooting a few years back played out a bit differently from the Virginia Tech massacre:
On January 16, 2002, Peter Odighizuwa, 43, of Nigeria, who had recently flunked out of the Appalachian School of Law, arrived at the school. Odighizuwa first discussed his academic suspension with professor Dale Rubin, where it is reported that he told Rubin to pray for him. Odighizuwa then walked to the offices of Dean Anthony Sutin and Professor Thomas Blackwell, where Odighizuwa opened fire with a .380 ACP semi-automatic handgun. According to a county coroner, powder burns indicated that both people were shot at point blank range. Killed along with the two staff members was a student, Angela Denise Dales, age 33. Three other people were wounded.When Odighizuwa exited the building where the shooting took place, he was approached by two students with personal firearms. At the first sound of gunfire, fellow students Tracy Bridges and Mikael Gross (an off-duty police officer), unbeknownst to the other, had run to their vehicles to grab their personal firearms (with Bridges pulling his .357 Magnum pistol from beneath the driver’s seat of his Chevy Tahoe). As Bridges later told the Richmond Times Dispatch, he was prepared to shoot to kill.
Bridges and Gross approached Odighizuwa from different angles, with Bridges yelling at Odighizuwa to drop his gun. Odighizuwa then dropped his firearm and was subdued by a third student, Ted Besen, who was unarmed. Once Odighizuwa was securely held down Gross went back to his vehicle and retrieved handcuffs to help hold Odighizuwa until police could arrive. Police reports noted there were two empty eight round magazines belonging to Odighizuwa’s handgun. It is unclear whether Odighizuwa ran out of ammunition or if there was still a round in the chamber at the time that he dropped his firearm.