• Police: Two University of Maryland students die in murder-suicide

    View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.

    By Carissa DiMargo, NBCWashington.com

    Prince George's County Police Police have identified the suspected shooter in an apparent murder-suicide as Dayvon Maurice Green, a graduate student at the University of Maryland.

    Authorities say Green opened fire on his two housemates in an off-campus residence in College Park, killing one and wounding the other before turning the gun on himself.

    Police said Green had been suffering from an unspecified mental illness before the shooting. He had purchased the gun legally about one year ago.

    Green was studying computer science. He had completed an undergraduate degree at Morgan State University.

    Police said that shortly after 1 a.m. Tuesday, he set a fire in the basement of his rented house in the 8700 block of 36th Avenue near University Boulevard. As his two housemates ran outside and confronted him, he opened fire, according to authorities.

    Read more from NBCWashington.com

    Green then went to the rear of the house and killed himself, police said.

    One housemate, who sustained non-life-threatening injuries, ran to a neighbor's house for help. The other victim later died at a local hospital.

    "All I heard was about six to seven shots going, 'pop pop pop,' and then about 15 minutes later, we saw the cops," neighbor Jithin George told News4's Megan McGrath.

    The identities of the victims -- both male University of Maryland students -- have not yet been released. It is unknown whether they were graduate or undergraduate students.

    The university sent an alert to students around 1:15 a.m., warning them that a shooting had been reported off-campus.

     

    This story was originally published on Tue Feb 12, 2013 3:09 PM EST

  • Cops: University of Maryland student vowed rampage would 'make it to national news'

    University of Maryland student vowed to go on "shooting rampage". WRC's Darcy Spencer reports.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    Updated at 2:50 p.m. ET: COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- A University of Maryland student has been arrested and charged with posting an Internet threat claiming he planned to go on a shooting rampage on campus hoping to kill as many people as possible.


    Campus police said in a statement that 19-year-old Alexander Song, of Fulton, Md., had been identified as the person who posted plans on a website for a rampage.

    "I will be on a shooting rampage tomorrow on campus," police quoted Song as saying in the Saturday posting. "Hopefully I kill enough people to make it to national news." 

    The message also warned people to "stay away from the mall." Police did not elaborate.

    Capt. Marc Limansky told the Baltimore Sun that police were informed of the alleged threats after a former student noticed them on reddit.com. Two people also contacted the university after chatting with Song on omegle.com, Limansky added.

    A sophmore honors student, Song was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation after his arrest Sunday.

    Song, who was not armed when he was arrested, faces a misdemeanor charge of disturbing school activities.

    A police spokesman said it was unclear if Song had an attorney.

    The university website describes Song as a member of a campus research program for select honors students who explore how science and technology relates with society. The Gemstone Program lists Song as scheduled to graduate in 2014.

    Song was one of the leaders of a student research team, Be Pure, that was studying ways to make methane gas safe for energy consumption, said James Wallace, a mechanical engineering professor and director of the Gemstone Program.

    Steven Hutcheson, the team's advisor, said Song had once been one of the more vocal members of the team but had recently appeared quieter. Hutcheson and a couple students who knew Song said there was no indication that he was unhappy or capable of violence.

    "I wish there had been something because I would have loved to have helped him," Hutcheson said.

    Anjana Sekaran, another member of the Be Pure team, said she had known Song since last year, "and he is a very intelligent, good-natured individual. He would never hurt anyone."

    After the arrest, some students complained on Twitter that the school's emergency alert system was not activated after police learned of the threat. University President Wallace Loh said in a statement Monday that officials decided that sending out a campus-wide alert before Song was in custody threatened to interfere with their investigation.

    "The police are confident that any threat to our community was mitigated once the student was taken into custody," Loh said.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

    More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

    US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook