MT. PLEASANT (WKZO AM/FM) — The suspect in the double murder at Central Michigan University on Friday has now been charged with 2-counts of open murder and a gun charge, and remains at McLaren Hospital in Flint for undisclosed reasons.
His bond has been set at $3-million according to Central Michigan University who released an update.
James Davis Jr. was suffering from hypothermia after being out in the weather when he was arrested early Saturday morning. He was also acting incoherently when he was picked up.
Where he spent all 15-hours between the shooting of his parents and the capture has not been answered, nor why he was released by McLaren just hours before the murder.
His strange behavior for hours before and after the killings may prompt whichever Judge hears his case first to immediately order psychiatric testing.
WMU lost its basketball game with CMU, played in an empty fieldhouse in Flint 84 to 71. It had been postponed Friday night and was rescheduled at an off-campus location Saturday morning, because of the shooting.
ORIGINAL STORY
MOUNT PLEASANT, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — The suspect in that double shooting at Central Michigan University is under-guard at McClaren Hospital in Flint, suffering from exposure and some unidentified mental issue.
CMU Public Safety Chief Bill Yeagley revealed during a morning news conference that James Davis Jr. was having some sort of drug induced mental break-down the night before the shooting, claiming someone else in the dorm was trying to kill him, acting incoherently and was taken to the hospital.
That was apparently his state of mind 24-hours later, after the shooting when he was picked up along the railroad tracks north of Campus. He was also suffering from mild hypothermia.
His parents were called to come get him after that initial contact with campus officers.
Chief Yeagley suspects the boy took a load of luggage down to his parent’s car in the parking lot, saw his father’s hand gun in the car, returned with it to the dorm room and shot them both to death.
They have a video of the 19-year-old coming in from the Parking lot at Campbell Hall with the gun in his hand. James Davis Sr. was a part-time Police Officer in Bellwood, Illinois.
Mt. Pleasant Police Chief Paul Lauria says they set up a Joint Command and began the search. They aren’t sure where Davis spent the 15 hours between the shooting and his capture, but he was found not far from where he had last been seen, just north of Campus near the railroad tracks. He was first spotted by a rail employee who tipped off police very early Saturday morning.
Police are trying to retrace his steps, and have no doubt ordered autopsies on both of the victims and toxicology tests on the suspect.
They will be interviewing acquaintances and when they get the chance, the suspect himself. There will likely be a court ordered psychiatric exam in Davis’s future before any serious prosecution begins.
CMU President George Ross says he was proud of his staff and the students for the speed at which they imposed the lockdown and secured buildings to insure the protection of everyone on campus.
But a lot of things also went wrong. Campus Chief Yeagley says James Davis Sr. violated the University’s policy by bringing the gun in campus. Because it was the last day of classes, security at Campbell Hall was lax and that made it easier for Davis Jr. to bring it into the building.
Dr. Ross says they plan to beef up their own staff with counselors from other area colleges when classes resume after Spring Break, to provide whatever attention other students and staff need to cope with Friday’s sudden explosion of deadly violence so close to home.
