Agence France Presse

A Nigerian law student charged with shooting three others to death in Grundy, Virginia was apparently unhappy that he had been placed on academic suspension, a police source said Thursday.

Police say Peter Odighizuwa, 42, went on a shooting spree Wednesday that wounded three others at Appalachian Law School in Grundy, Virginia. “(He was) apparently angered at his academic suspension,” according to a source at the Buchanan County Sheriff Department in the western part of the state.

“He is currently held at the Buchanan’s County Jail. He’s been charged with three counts of capital murder and three counts of using a firearm to commit a felony,” according to the sheriff’s department.

Odighizuwa has also been charged with using a firearm with the intention of committing a crime and could face the death penalty.

A former Chicago taxi driver and father of four, Odighizuwa hoped to earn a law degree.

The scenic college with 170 students was founded in 1997.

Wednesday afternoon, Odighizuwa argued about his suspension with a professor. When he left the office, Odighizuwa asked the professor to pray for him. He went to the office of the dean, Anthony Sutin, a former high Justice Department official in the Bil Clinton administration and shot him with a .38 semi-automatic pistol before killing another professor who was there, said police.

Downstairs, he again opened fire, killing a 33-year-old student and wounding three others, according to police.

As he was about to leave, three students held him until police arrived.

This was the second US school shooting in two days. Tuesday, two New York youths were allegedly wounded by an armed high school student in Manhattan.

Appalachian School of Law Shootings

Agence France Presse