3 Dead, 1 Injured in Fort Collin Shooting: First Victim Identified

By Bowen Xiao
October 20, 2017 Last Updated: October 22, 2017
Savannah McNealy. Screenshot via Facebook/Savannah McNealy)

Three people are dead and one wounded after a shooting on Thursday outside an apartment complex. The shooting suspect was also among those killed, police said.

The pre-dawn shooting took place just about a mile west of the campus at 720 City Park Ave.

According to CBS the motive behind the Oct. 19, 2 a.m. shooting is not yet known. After shots were heard, University police alerted students and faculty via text and email to stay inside their buildings.

The Larimer County coroner’s office identified one of the victims as university student Savannah McNealy, 22, of Fort Collins. She had been found shot multiple times and her death was ruled a homicide, CBS reported.

The location of the shooting. (Screenshot Via Google Maps)

According to Fort Collins Coloradoan, McNealy is believed to be the first victim identified from the shooting. The incident was also marked as the deadliest shooting in Larimer County in more than a decade.

McNealy was a student studying liberal arts, art, and art history. She was also a designer for CSU life, a campus publication.

The other three people involved in the shooting have not been identified as of Oct. 20. They were not affiliated with CSU.

City police Sgt. Dean Cunningham said it appeared that the shooter was known by at least one of the victims, according to Fort Collins Police. CSU is a public university with more than 33,000 students.

The police department is still investigating the shooting, more details will be released as it becomes available.

Darren Rutz, a former CSU student who lives near the scene, told CBS Denver the gunfire woke him up, followed by a woman’s cry for help.

“There was a lot of gunshots actually, so, I don’t know, they sounded like they were all coming from the same place.”

Another person near the scene, Austin Pickett, who lives in the complex, told the station,”We just kept hearing these manic screams, at which point we decided to call 911.”

“We are deeply saddened by this terrible loss to our campus community and will share more information as we have it,” the university said in an email to students and staff, the Coloradoan reported.

From NTD.tv