An 18-year-old Campbellsville University student was found unresponsive in his dorm room early Saturday and later pronounced dead at a hospital, officials said.
The police in Campbellsville, Ky., arrested a 21-year-old man who was wanted in connection with the killing of a Campbellsville University student on Saturday, officials said.
The student, Josiah Malachi Kilman, 18, was found unresponsive in his dorm room around 12:43 a.m. and transferred to Taylor Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the police said in a statement.
The police identified the man they arrested as Charles E. Escalera, 21. Officials said they had obtained a warrant for his arrest, charging him with murder.
The university, which confirmed Mr. Escalera’s arrest on Saturday evening, said he was a student.
The Campbellsville police said in a statement that Mr. Escalera was taken into custody after the Green County Sheriff’s Office and Kentucky State Police “received a call of a suspicious male inside a barn.” The State Police responded to the call and arrested Mr. Escalera.
Details of what led up to Mr. Kilman’s death were unavailable.
John D. Bertram, the county attorney for Taylor County, said in an interview on Saturday night that he believed Mr. Escalera and Mr. Kilman knew each other, but “I’m not aware of any history between them.”
Video surveillance helped lead the authorities to identifying Mr. Escalera as a person of interest, he said.
Calling the case “way beyond unusual,” Mr. Bertram said he was not aware of “anything of this nature occurring on the campus, and it’s a relatively small campus.”
Joseph Hopkins, the president of Campbellsville University, said in a statement that the university was “grieving the loss of one of our family.”
“We have lost a student and our hearts are broken,” he said. “During this devastating time, the continued safety of our students and the residents of our community are our primary concern. With consultation from local law enforcement, we will continue to implement every measure necessary to protect and support students and our community.”
Campbellsville University is a Christian university with a main campus of more than 100 acres, 85 miles southeast of Louisville, Ky. It has an enrollment of about 12,000 students.
Mr. Kilman’s death was the third case of fatal violence involving college students since Feb. 16.
A University of Colorado student was arrested on Monday on murder charges related to the fatal shooting of two people, one of them his roommate. And on Friday, the authorities in Georgia arrested a 26-year-old man in the killing of an Augusta University student whose body was found in a wooded area at the University of Georgia in Athens.
Rebecca Carballo contributed reporting.
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
