SHOOTING AT SKYLINE COLLEGE

Click here for a map of the crime scene (Google Earth)

Slideshow of police response to shooting at Skyline College

Students react to Skyline College shooting

Timeline of events after Skyline College shooting

UPDATE 9/03/09 9:43 pm:

According to Mercury News, the three suspects arrested were in fact friends of the victim, and were defending him when the conflict occurred on September 2.

All three of the men arrested were Skyline students, although Bender had yet to register for any classes.

UPDATE 9/03/09 7:38 pm:

A press release from the San Bruno Police Department confirmed that they are holding three suspects in custody.

Germaine B. Benjamin, 18, Dimaryea J. McGhee, 20, and Jacori W. Bender, 18, all San Francisco residents, are being held in custody.

All three are being charged with attempted murder and criminal conspiracy, and Benjamin is being charged with posession of a wespon on school grounds.

The investigation is continuing, and police are still looking for three African-American men between ages 18 and 20, all of whom were wearing blue jeans on the day of the shooting and fled the scene in a flourescent purple Ford Escort.

UPDATE 9/03/09 2:04 pm:

According to KTVU, three suspects were arrested in connection with the shooting at Skyline College.  Police are holding the three men on charges of attempted murder.

UPDATE 9/02/09 11:18 pm:

The San Bruno Police Department issued a press release a short time ago.

According to the report, the victim was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The altercation that led to the shopoting apparently took place in parking lot #6, where the victim was a part of a confrontation between two groups of African-American men.

Police are currently searching for three suspects, all young African-American men who were all wearing blue jeans and a red shirt, a white shirt, and a black shirt.

The suspects are believed to have fled the parking lot after the shooting in a flourescent purple Ford Escort.

Approximately 3000 students were evacuated from campus room-by-room after the shooting.

Police are currently referring to this as an isolated incident – all signs indicate that the victim was targeted specifically and the shooter was not intending to go on a rampage.

UPDATE 9/02/09 11:07 pm:

According to a report by KPIX, the victim of the shooting was a 20-year old Skyline student.

UPDATE 9/02/09 9:23 pm:An officer from the San Bruno Police Department told The Skyline View that the Skyline College campus will be under lockdown for the duration of the night, and will remain under 24-hour surveilance.

Students will be able to access their property first thing on the morning of Thursday, September 3.BREAKING NEWS:

An unidentified young African-American male was shot on campus Wednesday, September 2.The man, who has yet to be confirmed as a Skyline student, wasallegedly near the Pacific Heights building when he had aconfrontation with six to eight other individuals, which resulted inone of them shooting the victim.Katharine Harer, a professor in the Language Arts department, was inthe Learning Center when the victim ran in bleeding from the lowertorso and yelling.”His shirt had a lot of blood on it,” Harer said.  “It was hard totell where he was hurt, but he came in yelling that he’d been shot.”According to Harer, the victim ran out of the building almostimmediately for unknown reasons, pursued by a woman in the buildingwho had EMT training.One student, Ray Al-hubaishy, saw three men fleeing campus right afterthe shooting, one of whom he said was carrying a “large, silver gun.””I wasn’t really scared,” Al-hubaishy said, regarding seeing a personwith a gun on campus.  “They were the ones who seemed scared to me…itseemed like they were running from something.”Shortly after the shooting was reported to have taken place, policeappeared on campus to begin searching for the suspects.  They werejoined by SWAT teams within the hour.Official announcements were given over the PA system telling studentsto remain in their classrooms and wait for police to escort them offcampus, which was being locked down.An official text alert was sent to over 9,000 subscribed phones at2:06 pm reading “Active shooter on campus. Take safe coverimmediately. Classes closed for the rest of the day.”Barbra Christensen, Director of Community and Government Relations,declined to issue a statement at the time, saying that they werewaiting for police.Some students reported an issue receiving the text message, whichChristensen later speculated may have been due to the individual carriers.”What’s important is that enough people got it to warn others and besafe,” Christensen said.During the crisis, the San Bruno Police department as well asSkyline’s own Public Safety office were unavailable for comment.The Skyline View staff was escorted out of the newsroom atapproximately 3 pm by officers armed with what appeared to be assaultrifles.Students were escorted over to the west side of campus, past the busstops, then down College Drive to a police cordon, at which point theywere no longer allowed to return to campus.A large crowd developed around the cordon, comprised of both studentsand reporters, to try and piece together exactly what happened.Commander Marc Catalano said in a statement to the press that police< br />officers arrived on the scene roughly 30 minutes after the incident,which he said was a very fast response time, all factors considered.According to Catalano, witness accounts placed the victim in a parkinglot involved in some sort of altercation with a group of men.  One ofthe men pulled out an as yet to be identified weapon and shot thevictim in the lower back.He emphasized that the officers’ first priority was to ensure that allstudents remained safe and to determine if the shooter was still oncampus.Christensen issued a later statement saying that the police wereholding four individuals, but was adamant that they were not currentlysuspects.”All I know is that the police are holding four individuals,”Christensen said.  “I’m not sure who they are or if they’re students.”Ray Hernandez, President of Academic Senate, declined to comment,saying that he had received an e-mail from the district instructinghim not to comment on the issue.The e-mail, which was sent to all district employees, said that allinquiries by the press should be directed to the San Bruno PoliceDepartment, which is planning on releasing an official statement assoon as they have enough information.Skyline College is closed on Thursday, September 3 while the police conduct their investigation.  Regular classes will resume Friday, September 4.