Dayton Daily News (Ohio)

DAYTON - The 43-year-old man who is accused of shooting and killing three people and wounding three others at a Virginia law school graduated from Central State University and taught for Trotwood-Madison elementary schools during his days in the Miami Valley.

Peter Odighizuwa graduated from CSU in 1999 with a degree in mathematics, university spokesman Jim Cleveland said Friday.

Also, Trotwood-Madison School District spokeswoman Debbie Clements said Odighizuwa was employed by the district for four days in May 2000 as a substitute teacher at Westbrooke and at Olive Hill elementaries.

The work history of Odighizuwa in the Miami Valley began to be pieced together, one day after he was arraigned on charges of capital murder and attempted capital murder at the Appalachian School of Law, in Grundy, Va. A Buchanan County General District judge has scheduled a preliminary hearing for March 21.

Odighizuwa was a special education substitute at Westbrooke. Clements didn’t know what grade he taught at Olive Hill.

A mandatory criminal background check showed no arrest history and his personnel file showed there was no documentation of any problems, Clements said.

“Nobody remembers anything unusual about him or about his character,” she said. He had been approved in August to substitute again in the district if needed, Clements said.

“As of this month, he had not been called,” she said.

Odighizuwa’s wife, Abieyuwa, studied prenursing at Sinclair Community College between spring 1998 and winter quarter 2000, said Gary Honnert, the college’s director of public information.

“She was a student in good standing,” he said.

Computerized records also revealed that while Odighizuwa lived in the Miami Valley, Springfield police arrested him for speeding on March 26, 1998. He gave a Dayton address of 20 W. Mumma Ave., at the time.

How the violation was dealt with in court was not clear.

The same records search listed Odighizuwa as having a Springfield address, 820 E. John St., Apt. C., in the mid-1990s.

A neighbor there said a photograph of Odighizuwa did not look familiar, although a woman and her son, who would have matched Odighizuwa’s age, lived at that apartment within the past eight years.

Odighizuwa and his family moved to Virginia from Ohio in 2000 so he could attend the law school.

Police said Odighizuwa killed the school’s dean, a professor and a student Wednesday because he was angry that he had been suspended from school for the second time. He wounded three others in the student lobby of the school’s main building.

The three who were wounded remained in fair condition Friday.

Staff writers Mark Fisher and Derek Ali as well as The Springfield News Sun contributed.

Appalachian School of Law Shootings

Dayton Daily News (Ohio)