New Mexico State Police help APD officers investigate a deadly shooting overnight in the Coronado Hall dormitories on the UNM campus. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Journal)
Delayed communication is causing considerable anxiety among our residents.- President Garnett Stokes.
A shooting on the campus of the University of New Mexico early on the morning of November 18 between a 19-year-old UNM student and 21 year old New Mexico State University student left student Lobo dead and student Aggie wounded.
Officer Chase Jewell, an APD spokesman, stressed that this was not an active shooter situation.
“This is a unique incident and there is no mention of hazards that pose a risk to students on campus,” Jewell said in an email.
UNM President Garnett S. Stokes apologized to students for the delay in communication and expressed concern for mental well-being on campus.
“News of violence on and near college campuses has been on national minds, especially in recent weeks, and we must do everything in our power to provide a safe environment for our Lobo community, especially those who live on campus,” Stokes said in a student blast email.
He addressed gun violence as a “national public health crisis” and stressed that students must have access to adequate mental health care.
According to the National Education Association, there have been shootings in American schools almost every year since 1966but in 2021 there was a record 250 shooting incidents, including any occurrence of a firearm being dischargedwhether related to suicides, accidental shootings, gang-related violence, or incidents at school events after hours.’
In 2019, Rio Rancho High School and V. Sue Cleveland High School had their own threats, one of which occurred a year after the Parkland, Florida, Valentine’s Day shooting.
UNM continues to receive crime threats near and on campus every day.
School shootings have been a national threat impacting students and their families since Bill Clinton was president.
“It is imperative that, community by community, we find ways to protect our children and ensure they have the safe places they need to learn the hard business of growing up, to learn right from wrong, to learn good citizenship.” US Attorney General Janet Reno, a Clinton appointee, said in 1999.
This problem continues 23 years later.
The UNM and Aggie basketball teams will wait against each other in future games until matters are resolved.
