By Khalida Sarwari
A San Jose State University spokeswoman addressed concerns during a news conference today that the university did not properly notify students about a fatal shooting in a campus parking garage on Tuesday night.
The shooting happened at about 8:30 p.m. on the fifth story of the 10th Street garage at the corner of East San Fernando and South 10th streets.
University spokeswoman Pat Lopes Harris said officers determined it was an isolated incident and that the campus was not at risk.
For that reason, she said, an initial message that was sent out over the university’s internal public address system — and was later followed by an alert sent to students via text message and e-mail — gave only instructions and not information about the shooting.
“If we had any indication any student or member of the public was in the least amount of danger, we would have notified them right away,” Harris said. “Our first priority will always be instruction, our second priority will be information.”
The instructions were to stay away from the garage until it partially reopened after midnight, Harris said.
She said it took officers three to four hours to give medical assistance to the victims, all who were found on the fifth floor. Two were located in a vehicle, along with a small handgun, she said.
Those two were pronounced dead at the scene. A third was transported to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and was pronounced dead there.
The victims’ names will not be released until their families are notified.
None had criminal records, Harris said.
She said two of the three were males and one was a female.
Harris declined to comment on a possible motive for the shooting or whether any of the three were students, but said, “there is definitely university affiliation.”
She said police are investigating the case, the first of its kind in the university’s 150-year history, as a murder-suicide.
“This incident is unusual, unprecedented,” Harris said. “We had no indication this was coming.”
The university is offering free counseling to students today, she said.
The San Jose Police Department is assisting with the investigation and sent two homicide detectives and a crime scene investigator to the university Tuesday night, police spokesman Officer Jose Garcia said.
Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to call the San Jose State University Police Department at (408) 924-2168.