New Mexico State Police assists APD officers in investigating a deadly overnight shooting at Coronado Hall Dorms on the UNM Campus. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Journal)

 

The delayed communication is causing considerable anxiety among our residents.- President Garnett Stokes.

A shooting on the University of New Mexico campus early on the morning of Nov. 18 between a 19-year-old UNM student and a 21-year-old New Mexico State University Student left the Lobo student dead and the Aggie student injured.

Officer Chase Jewell, an APD spokesman, stressed that it was not an active shooter situation.

“This is a singular incident, and no dangers are mentioned to pose a risk to students on campus,” Jewell said in an email.

UNM president, Garnett S. Stokes apologized to students for the delay in communication and expressed concern for mental well-being on campus.

“News of violence on and near university campuses has been front of mind on a national level, especially in recent weeks, and we must do everything in our power to provide a safe and secure environment for our Lobo community, especially for those who live on campus,” Stokes said in a mass student email.

She addressed gun violence as a “national public health crisis” and stressed that students should have access to proper mental health care.

According to the National Education Association, there have been shootings at U.S. schools almost every year since 1966, but in 2021 there were a record 250 shooting incidents – including any occurrence of a firearm being discharged, be it related to suicides, accidental shootings, gang-related violence or incidents at after-hours school events.’

In 2019, Rio Rancho High School and V. Sue Cleveland High School had their own threats, one of which occurred a year after the Parkland, Fla., shooting on Valentine’s Day.

UNM continues to have threats from nearby and on-campus crime every day.

School shootings have been a national threat that have impact on students and their families since Bill Clinton was president.

“It is imperative that, community by community, we find the ways to protect our children and secure for them the safe places they need to learn the hard business of growing up, to learn right from wrong, to learn to be good citizens,” U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, appointed by Clinton, said in 1999.

This issue continues 23 years later.

UNM and Aggie basketball teams will hold off on future games against each other until matters are resolved.