TUCSON, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- A troubled male nursing student shot three University of Arizona faculty members to death Monday and terrorized classmates who had been taking their midterms before turning his gun on himself.
The gunman, identified by police and university officials as Robert S. Flores, 41, reportedly walked into a fourth-floor classroom at the College of Nursing where a midterm exam was under way and shot two of his professors at close range before killing himself. The body of the third faculty member was found in another part of the building.
"The entire campus community is traumatized," University of Arizona President Peter Likins said in a statement.
"We grieve for those whom we have lost in this tragedy and for their loved ones. Some people have witnessed murders," Likins said. "For them, and for the family and friends of the victims, the days ahead will be unspeakably difficult."
The three victims were identified as Robin E. Rogers, 50, Barbara S. Monroe, 44, and Cheryl M. McGaffic, 35. The university said all three were clinical assistant professors at the nursing college.
The motive for the shootings was not clear late Monday.
However, investigators believe Flores had been experiencing both academic and domestic difficulties. Witnesses told reporters that Flores had not been allowed to take the midterm because he had arrived late.
Student Diana Lugo told the Arizona Daily Star that Flores was a "very anxious and stressed-out person" who nervously squeezed a rubber "stress ball" during class.
"He always had one of those stress balls in class," she noted.
The Daily Star reported Flores, a veteran of the Gulf War, had worked as a licensed practical nurse at a veteran's hospital and had had his wages garnished by a judge on Oct. 4 due to arrears in support payments for his children, ages 15 and 10.
Lugo said the shootings occurred as she and more than 50 other students labored over their tests. She told the newspaper that Flores walked in and confronted Monroe, who had often lectured to her students on the role of spirituality in patient care.
"He walked in and said to the first professor, 'Here's a lesson in spirituality,' then he said, 'Make peace with your maker,' and then he shot her," Lugo said.
Flores reportedly asked the stunned McGaffic if she, too, was prepared to meet her maker and then shot her dead.
The shootings triggered a stampede of students who poured out of the door and raced down the hallway while Flores shot himself.
"There were 20-30 nursing students running by and crying," student Chris Chavez told KVOA.
More than 100 Tucson and campus police officers responded to the scene. A search of the building led to the discovery of the third victim; Roberts' body was found in her office. Police said it appeared Flores had killed her first before heading back into the classroom on his deadly spree.
Police also called in the Tucson bomb squad to search a backpack that Flores had been carrying, as well as his vehicle, which was parked in a nearby lot.
"When the officers went in (to the classroom), they found a backpack or package underneath his body that gave them suspicions that the package might be an explosive device," Tucson Police Chief Bob Miranda told reporters. "We also had additional information that the suspect had threatened to blow up the building, and we called our explosives people to come out."
Four buildings on the campus were closed down and trauma patients were diverted away from nearby University Medical Center as Tucson. Classes continued on most of the Arizona campus, but university officials encouraged traumatized students to seek out counseling.
"There are no words to describe the pain," Likins told reporters at the scene. "This is personal. This was not an abstraction. These are our colleagues who lost their lives."
(Reported by Hil Anderson in Los Angeles.)
